DIVISION | CENTERS & PROGRAMS | HIGHLIGHTS
WOMEN’S ANESTHESIOLOGY
Enhancing Care with Innovative Approaches to Curriculum, QI and Operations The Women’s Anesthesiology Division welcomed two new faculty members, Drs. Rebecca Himmelwright and Sara Feldman, who have already made significant contributions to the missions of the division. Himmelwright, serving both the women’s and critical care medicine divisions, leads a dedicated, multidisciplinary team who developed a unique curriculum geared to improve the management of postpartum hemorrhages at Duke through monthly multidisciplinary simulations and debriefs, paired with a Learning Management Systems module. She is also spearheading quality improvement initiatives within the division. Feldman assumed the role as director of the resident OB anesthesia rotation, partnering with Drs. Jennifer Mehdiratta and Jean He to enhance the resident experience and maximize learning opportunities in the rotation. Mehdiratta, in her capacity as the OB anesthesia medical director of the Duke Birthing Center, has been a key contributor to a multidisciplinary effort to improve efficiency in the operating rooms on the unit. In addition to optimizing operational efficiency, she is working with Jennifer Easterling,
Dr. Jennifer Mehdiratta
Dr. Sara Feldman
Dr. Rebecca Himmelwright
CRNA clinical lead, to cultivate a more collaborative and structured environment within the unit. Other members of the division continue to make an impact on a regional and national level. Dr. Terrence Allen was appointed as a member of the North Carolina Maternal Mortality Review Committee (MMRC), serving as the only anesthesiologist on the esteemed panel. MMRCs are crucial for improving maternal health outcomes by conducting comprehensive reviews of pregnancy-related deaths to identify causes, preventability and actionable recommendations to reduce future deaths; Dr. Melissa Bauer, an internationally renowned expert in maternal sepsis, was appointed as a guest researcher for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on maternal sepsis; Dr. Ashraf Habib, division chief, was appointed section editor for obstetric anesthesiology for Anesthesia & Analgesia, one of the leading journals of the specialty.
CENTER FOR PERIOPERATIVE ORGAN PROTECTION The center continues to drive cutting-edge perioperative organ protection and brain health research. Dr. Michael Devinney’s newly-established Critical Illness and Perioperative Brain Health Research (CIPHER) Laboratory received a K23 award from the National Institute on Aging that funds the “Complement Activation Dr. Huaxin Sheng Dr. Jamie Privratsky Dr. Wei Yang in Delirium and Subsequent Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s Disease in the ICU (CASCADE-ICU)” profound heterogeneity of microglia in the stroke brain, study, which has recruited more than 25% of the target cohort providing a critical foundation for future research into the of 120 older critically ill patients. The lab also published a nuanced roles of distinct microglia states in stroke. pivotal manuscript on the role of obstructive sleep apnea Dr. Jamie Privratsky’s group published in Frontiers in in postoperative neurocognitive disorders in Anesthesia & Molecular Biosciences on novel anti-inflammatory roles of IL-1 Analgesia (A&A). receptors in kidney myeloid cells after ischemic acute kidney Dr. Leah Acker’s lab, now fully funded with an NIH R01 injury – instrumental in supporting multiple NIH R01 grant award, discovered new neural biomarkers of postoperative submissions. His expertise was recognized with an invited lecture attentional impairment using preoperative EEG signals. at the 2024 American Society of Nephrology Kidney Week. Investigators found that alpha attenuation with eyes opening Dr. Heath Gasier’s lab made key discoveries in hyperbaric may be a signature of postoperative attentional impairment and oxygen physiology, identifying calcium leak in sarcoplasmic could provide insights into the neural mechanisms underlying reticulum linked to post-dive fatigue and proving gas diffusion postoperative inattention risk (featured in Innovative Research). through aquaporins, which challenges traditional models Under Dr. Huaxin Sheng’s leadership, the Duke team, as (featured in Innovative Research). part of the NIH Stroke Preclinical Assessment Network, tested Dr. Mara Serbanescu published a first-author study in A&A five compounds using a filament model of ischemic stroke on gut microbiota changes due to perioperative therapies, in diverse animal populations. Optimizing embolic stroke linking them to increased inflammatory responses. She received models is now underway for future clinical translation. The both the International Anesthesia Research Society’s Mentored Multidisciplinary Brain Protection Program, led by Dr. Wei Research Award and Duke’s Strong Start Award to further her Yang, published a study in Genome Medicine documenting the translational research (featured on page 44). BLUEPRINT 2025 | 15