Congratulations to Karen Goldstein, MD, who is receiving a distinguished academic promotion in the division of General Internal Medicine. Dr. Goldstein is being promoted to Associate Professor, effective September 1, 2020. Since joining Duke faculty in 2011, she has significantly advanced her research career and has also proven herself as both a regional and national expert in Women’s Health research.
“It gives me tremendous pleasure to announce Dr. Goldstein's promotion to Associate Professor. As you know, these academic promotions mark faculty members’ scholarly achievements and are a hallmark of professional accomplishment in our school. Faculty appointed to Associate Professor have achieved recognition within Duke and at peer institutions as leaders in their fields both nationally and/or internationally.”
- L. Ebony Boulware, MD, MPH – Chief, Duke GIM
Karen Goldstein, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine, effective September 1, 2020
Dr. Goldstein joined Duke General Internal Medicine in 2011 and the Durham VAMC in 2010 where her primary responsibilities were in the VA’s Women’s Health Clinic. Starting in 2011, she served as co-investigator for a cohort study that sought to better understand the interaction between psychosocial factors, traditional risk factors, and outcomes for Veterans of the Gulf War. In 2012, she then took over as the Durham site lead for the VA Women’s Health Practice-Based Research Network (PBRN), of which the Durham VAMC was a founding member. Since assuming leadership for the PBRN she has served as site PI for 3 multi-site studies and 4 multi-site quality improvement projects. She has also joined the executive committee for the PBRN and continues as the Durham site lead today.
Career Development Award
Dr. Goldstein successfully competed for a VA HSR&D Career Development Award (CDA) which started in 2015 (one of 10 national applicants to win the award that year). This award has afforded her dedicated research time and advanced research training experiences to further develop her career goals in research while at the same time becoming one of the leading experts in VA Women’s Health. Her primary project in her VA CDA has been to develop, pilot test, and now seek VA HSR&D IIR funding for a peer-based intervention designed to improve social support and engage veterans at risk for cardiovascular disease to improve their heart health behavior.
Research
Dr. Goldstein has displayed high research productivity. She has 43 peer-reviewed articles and 5 peer-reviewed evidence synthesis reports, 13 as first author; 34 of these publications have come during the last 5 years. She has developed research expertise in evidence synthesis to the degree that she was named the co-director of the Durham VA’s Evidence Synthesis Program. She has also excelled at obtaining funding for her research, and fellowship funding to support others. In addition to her VA CDA and the VA Evidence Synthesis Program (co-director), she recently won support for a VA Quality Scholars Program which funds up to 3 Quality Scholars per year. She even served as an important content expert and co-investigator on 5 current and 5 completed funded studies.
National Speaker
Dr. Goldstein is a highly engaging and frequently requested speaker at both regional and national meetings. She has given 13 invited presentations at national meetings including a keynote address at the 2019 National VA Go Red Campaign Kickoff Meeting. She is currently serving as the Lead Guest Editor for a special journal supplement for Women’s Health Issues on Examining Sex/Gender Differences in VA Clinical and Health Service Research. This supplement is sponsored by the VA Cooperative Studies Program.
Clinical
Dr. Goldstein maintains a ½ day per week practice in the VA Women’s Health Clinic and she precepts ½ day per week in the VA PRIME clinic teaching internal medicine residents. She also interacts with internal medicine residents as a faculty coach and regular teaching engagements in the ambulatory care curriculum. She has mentored fellows and post-doctoral Ph.D., and her skills will grow in this area given her new leadership in the VA Quality Scholars Program.
In summary, Dr. Goldstein has demonstrated excellent early career success as an academic general internist with growing national expertise in women’s health service research. Her research addresses a high priority area and her ideas stem from the years of clinical work she did in an underserved, socially isolated population. In this way, her research will make a difference in the care delivered to women. I am confident that her early career successes will only be magnified as she gains greater experience and wins additional research funding.