Division News

On January 6, 2020, the American College of Emergency Physicians announced that Duke Regional Hospital has received Geriatrics Emergency Department Accreditation (GEDA), which recognizes emergency departments that use protocols designed to meet the needs of older patients.

Community has always been central in the life of Kimberly S. Johnson, MD, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics) and director of the Duke Center for Research to Advance Healthcare Equity—also known as the REACH Equity Center.

Dr. Johnson grew up in tiny Winstonville, Mississippi, just outside Mound Bayou, a town founded by former slaves in 1887. She was aware that barriers to her success existed in the larger world, yet inside her all-black community, surrounded by grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, the sky was the limit.

“Probably more than anything else, I’m a product of my community,” she says.

10 faculty from the Department of Medicine have been selected for the School of Medicine's LEADER program. 

Two faculty from the Department of Medicine have been recognized with awards from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM).

A gathering called a Death Café was organized for students taking a class called “Gerontological Nursing: Caring for Older Adults and their Families,” but it was open to all in the Duke community.

Neema Sharda, MD, assistant professor of medicine (Geriatrics), will discuss the aging voice as part of a daylong community workshop at the Cary Arts Center on September 7, 2019.

“Your voice is how you interact and engage with the world around you,” Sharda says. “Vocal impairments can be a real quality-of-life concern.”

Harvey Jay Cohen, MD, never planned to go into geriatrics. It wasn’t a word he heard in medical school in the 1960s. In fact, he hadn’t planned to go to medical school either. Once there, he certainly wasn’t planning to become a clinician--he just wanted to do research. Even after deciding to become a clinician-scientist, he chose hematology-oncology as his specialty. He never gave geriatrics a thought.

But life has a way of presenting opportunities, and Dr. Cohen has a way of saying yes.

As the director of a new center at Duke dedicated to interprofessional education and care, Mitch Heflin, MD, MHS, professor of medicine (Geriatrics), expects to draw on his experience as a geriatrician.

Michael Dee Gunn, MD, and Heather Whitson, MD, MHS, lead the Department of Medicine’s Research Development Council (RDC), a group dedicated to supporting investigators in the early phase of grant writing. Dr. Gunn supports basic investigators; Dr. Whitson supports clinical investigators. 

The School of Medicine has announced that Mitchell T. Heflin, MD, MHS, associate professor of medicine (Geriatrics), has been named associate dean for Interprofessional Education and Care and director of the new Center for Interprofessional Education and Care, effective July 1, 2019.