News

Duke University Hospital and Duke Raleigh Hospitals have received the American Heart Association’s (AHA) Get With The Guidelines®-Stroke 2021 Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award. This award, the highest that the AHA offers, recognizes commitment to providing the best possible care for stroke. Both Duke University Hospital and Duke Raleigh Hospital have received this award from the AHA for the past three years.

For 12 years, Drew O’Flaherty was part of the finance team at the Duke Private Diagnostic Clinic. This year he joined the Neurology Department, where he helps manage our annual budget, financial reports, computer inventory, and other operations. For this week’s Spotlight interview, O’Flaherty talks about how joining the Neurology Department opened his eyes to the scope of everything that happens at Duke, adjusting to a new job during the COVID-19 pandemic, and enjoying live music, craft beers, and grilling and smoking meats when he’s not at work.

This July, new research from the Duke Neurology Department answered questions about the subcellular origins of itching, how COVID-19 is affecting people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, what factors influence people eligible for epilepsy surgery to move forward with the procedure and topics. The paragraphs below summarize the 11 articles appearing in peer-reviewed publications from our faculty, staff, and trainees. Check them out and find links to the original publications below.

Neuromuscular Disease

New publications written by members of the Duke Neurology Department published this June advanced our understanding of the origins of Alzheimer’s disease, stroke, and spinal injuries, as well as offering new insights on how to better diagnose and treat these and other conditions. Our faculty contributed to recent articles in Lancet Neurology, Stroke, and other high-impact journals. Read more about each of these stories, and find links to the original articles themselves, in the paragraphs below.
 

Neuromuscular Disease

Clinical trials contain many complicated moving parts. Randy Smith, MPH, a clinical research coordinator who recently joined our Department, is working to make these parts move as smoothly as possible for a post-stroke recovery clinical trial. For this week’s “Spotlight” interview, Smith talks to us about how she came to Duke, how her previous experience as a dietitian influences her current work, and enjoying tennis, knitting, and volunteering for Meals on Wheels when she’s not at Duke.

Thirteen years ago, Matthew Tackitt was working in the financial sector, when the 2008 global economic crisis and cross-country move got him thinking about a career change. He opted for nursing and has stuck with it ever since. This May, Tackitt joined the Movement Disorders clinic as their navigator for their Deep Brain Stimulator (DBS) Program.

A novel application of zoledronic acid, a bisphosphonate typically prescribed to prevent or treat osteoporosis, is being assessed in a large-scale trial for its potential to prevent fractures in senior patients with Parkinson’s Disease (PD).

Treatment for movement disorders goes beyond providing medical care. Adjusting to a life with Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, or other conditions requires requires lifestyle changes, planning for the future, and coping with the stress and waves of emotions associated with a diagnosis. Anne Kosem, LCSW, at our Morreene Road Clinic helps people with movement disorders and their loved ones navigate these and other complex challenges.

Members of the Duke Neurology Department advanced the fields of clinical, translational, and basic neuroscience this April with 14 new peer-reviewed studies. Nicole Calakos, MD, PhD, was the senior author of a new study in Science that  expands our understanding of the integrated stress response in the brain and how it influences learning and memory.

Daniel Gingerich joined the laboratory of Ornit Chiba-Falek, PhD, last year, exactly two days before the COVID-19 pandemic forced a campus-wide shut down, forcing him to learn a new set of technical skills from home. Since then Gingerich has become proficient in single-cell data analysis, and is using those techniques to better understand genetic and epigenetic dysregulation in late onset Alzheimer's disease.