Division News

Renowned public health policy expert Mandy Cohen, MD, MPH, called on physicians to embrace consensus building around public trust in health care as confidence in federal agencies has fallen significantly this year — reaching a record low for the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) in some recent polls — in delivering the 2025 Eugene A. Stead Jr. Memorial Medicine Grand Rounds Lecture, “Leading Through Crisis and Change."

Kimberly S. Johnson, MD, MHS, Brenda E. Armstrong, MD Distinguished Professor of Medicine, has been selected by the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine to receive the 2026 State of the Science in Palliative Care Research Mentoring Award for her groundbreaking contributions to palliative care research and mentorship. 

After decades of persistence, researcher Dr. Anna Mae Diehl is transforming the understanding of liver disease and offering therapeutic promise for millions living with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease and other forms of liver injury.

Chronic pain is one of the most burdensome conditions in the United States, with lower back pain comprising the largest subset of those conditions, and veterans bearing a disproportionate amount of this societal burden. Two Duke researchers plan to change that reality and raise the standard of pain care management.

Cara McDermott, PharmD, is taking big steps to impact care for all patients while advancing geriatric research with her work in building the continuum of care for people with COPD — a leading cause of death in the United States after cancer, cardiovascular disease, and stroke.  

Duke Department of Medicine fellowship programs offer outstanding medical training for physicians interested in focusing their skills in several subspecialties while trainee career development initiatives augment the learning experiences for all.

To better prepare second-year Duke medical students for residency — and the real world — the internal medicine component of the School of Medicine’s outPatient Integrated lONgitudinal ExpERience (PIONEER) curriculum integrates early exposure to the outpatient setting — where much of medicine happens —  with robust ambulatory training and faculty mentorship. The 16-week experience fosters high-quality mentoring opportunities for students while opening doors for workforce development and research collaboration with faculty preceptors.

The Department of Medicine recognizes 13 faculty members with 2025 Excellence in Education Awards in recognition of their outstanding work and dedication to the education of its fellows, residents and students.

Dr. Susan “Nicki” Hastings, MD, MHS, will assume the role of chief for the Division of General Internal Medicine, effective December 16, 2024.

Dr. Juliessa Pavon is the principal investigator on a new $2.8 million, five-year National Institutes of Health Research Grant (R01) to help clinicians and older adults make safer, data-driven decisions about stopping medications.