News

Alexander C. Allori, MD; Joseph S. Fernandez-Moure, MD; Andrew C. Peterson, MD, MPH; Laura H. Rosenberger, MD; Jonathan C. Routh, MD, MPH​

U.S. News & World Report has ranked Duke Children’s Hospital among the top 50 children’s medical centers nationally and the only hospital in North Carolina with nine of 10 specialties ranked in the magazine’s analysis.

To care for patients, healthcare providers must stay healthy themselves. During the initial weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Duke’s surgical residency programs faced a serious challenge: how to keep their residents safe, healthy, and available, while still meeting the needs of patients in a rapidly changing global landscape.

Recently, Duke’s Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Residency Program has pioneered a formal “soft skills” curriculum that aggressively expands professional development and training that is broadly applicable outside the OR and clinic.

The Duke Department of Surgery now ranks third among surgery departments nationwide in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding received in 2019 according to the newly released Blue Ridge rankings. Duke Surgery has continued to rank in the top five nationally over the past 30 years, demonstrating the department’s long-standing commitment to investigate the impact of disease on patient health. With a diverse portfolio, including 78.7% of funding from the NIH, Duke Surgery faculty and staff perform a wide variety of research to improve the human condition.

Congratulations to Linda Cendales, MD, on her election to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) Board of Directors as an at-large representative in surgery. Dr. Cendales has served the OPTN as a member of their inaugural Vascularized Composite Allograft Committee,  subsequently as vice-chair, and now currently as the chair of the committee. 

Dr. Jeffrey Marcus, Professor and Chief, Division of Plastic, Maxillofacial, and Oral Surgery, and Dr. Alexander Allori, Assistant Professor of Surgery, have co-authored two of the top 10 most downloaded articles of 2019 in the Cleft Palate–Craniofacial Journal. This achievement is a testament to their world-renowned expertise and leadership in cleft lip/palate care. The two articles focus on diagnostic coding and the history of classifying cleft lip/cleft palate over the past 100 years.

Congratulations to the Duke Cleft and Craniofacial Team! They received notice that the American Cleft Palate and Craniofacial Association (ACPA) Commission on Approval of Teams voted to fully approve the Duke Team as a “Cross-Specialty Team” for a period of five years beginning January 1, 2020. The ACPA only approves teams that meet certain standards for comprehensive and coordinated cleft and craniofacial care. Congratulations to everyone on the team who has contributed every single day to make this possible.

In 2019, the Duke heart, lung, liver, and kidney transplant programs experienced unprecedented volume growth: more than 20% for most programs. With 521 total transplants performed in 2019, Duke Health now ranks 8th among U.S. transplant programs.

The Duke Transplant Center (DTC) of the Duke University School of Medicine aims to promote cross-disciplinary clinical, translational, and basic research with the ultimate goal of optimizing transplant organ longevity and improving quality of life of transplant recipients. This is the inaugural annual call from the DTC for proposals for pilot and feasibility studies.