Division News

The Division of General Internal Medicine welcomes David Casarett, MD, MA, as the new Chief of Palliative Care. Dr. Casarett relocated from the University of Pennsylvania where he was Professor of Medicine and Director of Hospice and Palliative Care.

Within three days, this online first by DGIM authors published in JAMA Surgery boasts an altmetric score of 120 — besides tweets, blogs, and facebook, there were 11 news outlets and this one by CBS News: “Do the benefits of weight-loss surgery really last?”

Congratulations to the following faculty members who have received promotions in the division of General Internal Medicine.

We are excited to announce three new members of our Duke General Internal Medicine team:

New Faculty Members

Gerardo Alcazar, MD (left), is a Hospital Medicine Medical Instructor. Dr. Alcazar graduated from Baylor College of Medicine and completed internal medicine residency at the University of Arizona where he was also a Chief Resident, 2016-2017. He has joined the Duke University Hospital team.

Dr. William Yancy, associate professor of medicine and program director at the Duke Diet & Fitness Center, was recently interviewed by Women's Health magazine for an article on "The Best Cardio Workout to Blast Belly Fat". In it, they discuss the myth behind “spot reducing”—the idea that one workout will blast away fat in your stomach and nowhere else.

In June, Dana Clifton, MD completed her combined Duke Medicine and Pediatrics residency and now launches her career in Hospital Medicine within Duke University Hospital. 

“I stayed at Duke because of the incredible faculty in the hospital medicine group,” says Clifton. “They are an impressive group of people.”

Kevin Schulman, MD, is a renowned clinical researcher and faculty member of Duke general internal medicine. Last week’s issue (August 16, 2016) of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) shows Dr. Schulman as an author of a Viewpoint article titled “Reassessing ACOs and Health Care Reform.” The co-author, Barak D. Richman, JD, is a colleague of Schulman’s from Duke Law.

Often, patients with chronic illnesses are prescribed a number of medications to take throughout their day, but experts suggest, close to half of those people don’t take their medications as directed by their doctors.

Jane Kim, MD, MPH, is newly appointed as the Chief Consultant for Preventive Medicine in the Office of Patient Care Services for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

Eugene Washington, MD, chancellor for health affairs at Duke University and president and CEO of the Duke University Health System, and Nancy Andrews, MD, PhD, dean of the Duke University School of Medicine, announced this week the launch of the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).