Zhenqi Liu, MD
As one of the finest endocrinology divisions in the country, the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism boasts many outstanding academic and clinical leaders in endocrinology and metabolism, and its faculty members strive to provide exceptional patient care and training to the next generation of physicians and scientists in addition to making cutting-edge scientific discoveries in basic, translational and clinical endocrine research. The year 2020 has proved to be one of the most difficult and unsettling years but our faculty and staff continue to excel in our tripartite missions. The Division currently has thirty-six faculty members (twelve full professors, nine associate professors, eleven assistant professors, and four NPs), and welcomed in 2020 one new member to its faculty: Kaitlin M. Love, MD. As Division Chief, I feel privileged and honored to work with so many talented, kind, and generous people.
Zhenqi Liu, MD
Awards, Achievements, Recognitions, and Promotions
FACULTY PROMOTIONS
Greg Hong, MD – Promoted from Assistant Professor of Medicine to Associate Professor of Medicine
Chris McCartney, MD – Promoted from Associate Professor of Medicine to Professor of Medicine
NOTABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
Sue Brown, MD – FDA authorizes the first interoperable, automated insulin dosing controller designed to allow more choices for patients looking to customize their individual diabetes management device system that Sue Brown et al reported in the recent NEJM paper.
Leon Farhi, PhD – Dr. Leon Farhi’s project “Machine Learning Technology for Prediction of Future Glucose Fluctuations to Enable a New Generation of Adaptive Glucose Control in Diabetes” was selected for funding by Virginia Commonwealth to support new research commercialization in emerging technology sectors.
Heather Ferris, MD, PhD– Washington Post: Five Myths About Diabetes: No you can’t get it from eating too many sweets
Gregory Hong, MD – Appointed as the new Endocrine Division Fellowship Program Director
Kaitlin M. Love, MD – 2020 iTHRIV (integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia) scholar. This is a pan-University mentored career development award with the major goal of training small groups of junior faculty seeking a clinical and translational research career. The awarded on July 1, 2020.
Chris McCartney, MD – Appointed DOM Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs – The Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs is a senior-level administrative position that leads Departmental efforts to support faculty members in all of their academic activities and to promote health, wellness, diversity, and inclusion in our community.
Multiple faculty members were recognized at the national and departmental levels for their career achievements in 2020: Richard J. Santen, MD received the 2020 Fred Conrad Koch Lifetime Achievement Award from the Endocrine Society. This award is the highest honor bestowed by the Endocrine Society in recognition of lifetime achievements and exceptional contributions to the field of endocrinology. John C. Marshall, MD, PhD received the 2020 Outstanding Leadership in Endocrinology Award from the Endocrine Society. This award recognizes outstanding leadership and innovative research in the field of endocrinology and dedication to the Endocrine Society. Robert M. Carey, MDR received the 2020 American Heart Association Distinguished Scientist Award. The award is the highest award of the AHA in science and the Distinguished Scientist designation honors AHA professional members who have made extraordinary contributions to cardiovascular and stroke research. Four faculty and staff members were recognized for their excellence in clinical care (Christine Eagleson, MD), mentorship (Jennifer Kirby, MD, PhD), research (Rita Basu, MD), and Education (Anne Wolf, MS, RD). Christopher McCartney, MD was promoted to Professor of Medicine and Gregory Hong, MD, PhD to Associate Professor of Medicine.
Virginia Center for Diabetes Prevention & Education
The Virginia Center for Diabetes Prevention & Education (VCDPE) has had an exceptional year carrying out their mission to provide high quality, evidence-based training, and increase access to diabetes and diabetes prevention programs using innovative methods. With the pandemic and shifting demand towards telehealth, VCDPE has been on the forefront of training, educating, and providing technical assistance around telehealth to diabetes and diabetes prevention programs in Virginia and across the Nation. We have adapted our Diabetes Tele-education and Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) to support people who live in rural Virginia to attend the programs from home. We have released three new trainings to support professional’s delivery of DSMES and National DPP using telehealth – a live, synchronous Advanced Training in Distance Learning for National DPP through our Center, and two online accredited courses on delivering DSMES and National DPP using telehealth through UVA’s Telehealth Village.
CLINICAL CARE
Division faculty members carry out the clinical mission in both outpatient and inpatient settings to care for patients with a broad spectrum of endocrine disorders. The Division houses an internationally renowned pituitary/neuroendocrinology program (Mary Lee Vance, MD, John C. Marshall, MD, PhD, and Gregory Hong, MD, PhD), a highly respected endocrine hypertension program (Robert M. Carey, MD, Helmy Siragy, MD, and Shetal Padia, MD), and a robust clinical diabetes care program that provides outstanding care to patients with diabetes both in our outpatient clinics and inside the hospital (led by Jennifer Kirby, MD, PhD). We launched a highly successful Advanced Diabetes Management clinic (directed by Andy Basu, MD) with a focus on diabetes technology (mainly continuous glucose monitoring and insulin pumps). In addition, our transgender care program is experiencing rapid growth and expansion.
RESEARCH
The Division has a rich portfolio of research programs that focus on diabetes (pathophysiology, complications, artificial pancreas, and exercise physiology), endocrine hypertension, and neuroendocrinology/polycystic ovary syndrome. Our faculty members have made major advances in artificial pancreas/automatic insulin delivery research. In conjunction with the Center of Diabetes Technology, our faculty developed the first FDA-approved, interoperable, automated insulin dosing controller designed to allow more choices for patients looking to customize their individual diabetes management device system. This system has been in widespread clinical use now and is making a real impact on diabetes management. We received two new R01 grants this year (Brown: Biobehavioral human-machine co-adaptation of the artificial pancreas; Liu: Effects of exercise and GLP-1 agonism on muscle microvascular perfusion and insulin action) in addition to Virginia state grants and multiple industrial grants. Following last year’s stellar record of three faculty members receiving career development awards, Kaitlin M. Love, MD was selected by the integrated Translational Health Research Institute of Virginia (iTHRIV) as 2020 iTHRIV scholars, a pan-University mentored career development award. The major goal of the program is to train small groups of junior faculty seeking a clinical and translational research career within the University. In the past 12 months, Division faculty had a total of 82 publications.
EDUCATION
We have a nationally respected fellowship training program with seven clinical fellows. The program is led by program director Gregory Hong, MD, PhD. Faculty members are fully committed to fellows’ education as well as training of medical students, medical residents, and postdoctoral research fellows. The Division has one neuroendocrine training grant, directed by Eugene J. Barrett, MD, PhD, and Andy Basu, MD. We aim to prepare trainees for an independent career in clinical care, academic research, and medical education and we have multiple faculty members who are educational leaders at national GME levels.
Recent Publications or Presentations
Robert M. Carey, MD
Kemp BA, Howell NL, Gildea JJ, Keller SR, Carey RM. Identification of a primary renal AT2 receptor defect in spontaneously hypertensive rats. Circulation Research. 2020; 126:644-659. doi: 10.1161/CIRCRESAHA.119.316193
Hilliard-Krause LM, Jui ATS, Jones ES, Del Borgo MP, Aguilar MI, Kemp BA, Denton KM, Carey RM, Widdop RE. Renal functional effects of the highly selective AT2R agonist, β-Pro-Ang III, in normotensive rats. Clinical Science (London). 2020; doi:10.1042/CS20200153.
Li J, Minczuk K, Massey JC, Roy RJ, Paul S, Patrie JT, Kramer CM, Epstein FH, Carey RM, Taegtmeyer H, Keller SR, Kundu BK. Metformin improves metabolic, functional and structural abnormalities in spontaneously hypertensive rat hearts. Journal of the American Heart Association. 2020;9:e015154. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.119.015154.
Brown JM, Siddiqui M, Calhoun DA, Carey RM, Hopkins PN, Williams GH, Vaidya A. The unrecognized prevalence of primary aldosteronism. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2020; doi: 10.7326/M20-0065. (article highlighted by editorial).
Sigmund CD, Appel L, Arnett D, Bosworth H, Cushman W, Dennison-Himmelfarb C, Hall J, Harrison D, McDonough A, Oparil S, Osborn J, Raizada M, Carey RM. Report of the NHLBI Working Group on Hypertension: Barriers to translation. Hypertension. 2020; doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.119.13887
Carey RM. Treatment of resistant hypertension: a 2020 update. Progress in Cardiovascular Disease. 2020; doi: 10.1016/j.pcad.2020.08.001.
Carey RM, Whelton PK. The evidence for the universal BP goal of< 130/80 mm Hg Is strong: Controversies in Hypertension – Pro. Hypertension. 2020; doi:1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.12014647.
Gorelick P, Whelton PK, Sorond F, Carey RM. Blood pressure management in stroke. Hypertension. 2020; doi:10.1161/hypertensionaha.120.14653
Carey RM, Wang J-G . Evidence that renin-angiotensin system inhibitors should not be discontinued due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hypertension. 2020; doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.15263.
Carey RM. Endocrine Causes of Secondary Hypertension. American Heart Association Comprehensive Guide on Hypertension.
Siddiqui M, Domiczak AF, Touyz RM, Carey RM, Basile J, Heslin MJ, Winoker T, Calhoun DA, Oparil S, Dudenbostel T. Case of episodic and positional hypertension: diagnosis and treatment. Hypertension. 2020; HYPERTENSIONAHA12015243. doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.15243.
Vaidya, A, Carey RM. The evolution of primary aldosteronism: simplifying the clinical approach. Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. 2020; doi:10.1210/clinem/dgaa606.
Carey RM. 2018 redefinition of resistant hypertension: prediction of major adverse outcomes. Journal of Clinical Hypertension. 2020; doi: 10.1111/jch.14042
D’Costa MR, Taler SJ, Carey RM, Basile JN, Bursztyn M, Bhalia V, Schwartz GL. A case of uncontrolled hypertension in an elderly man on multiple antihypertensive drugs. Hypertension. 2020; doi: 10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.120.15310.
William B Horton, MD
Horton WB, Barrett EJ. Microvascular dysfunction in diabetes mellitus and cardiometabolic disease. Endocr Rev 2020 Oct 30; bnaa025. doi: 10.1210/endrev/bnaa025. PMID: 33125468
Horton WB, Jahn LA, Hartline LM, Aylor KW, Patrie JT, Barrett EJ. Hyperglycemia does not inhibit insulin’s effects on microvascular perfusion in healthy humans: a randomized crossover study. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 2020; 319(4): E753-762. PMID: 32830553
Kaitlin M. Love, MD
Love KM, Liu J, Regensteiner JG, Reusch JEB, Liu Z. GLP-1 and insulin regulation of skeletal and cardiac muscle microvascular perfusion in type 2 diabetes. Journal of Diabetes. 2020 Apr 9. doi: 10.1111/1753-0407.13045. [Epub ahead of print] Review
Welcome New Faculty
Kaitlin M. Love , MD
Please welcome Kaitlin M. Love, MD to the faculty of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism as an Assistant Professor of Medicine, effective September 1, 2020. Dr. Love will focus her effort on developing an independent clinical research program on insulin action and diabetes complications. I look forward to working with Katie closely and witnessing her academic stride.
Endocrine Fellows 2020-2021
Janice Lee, MD, Izzah Vasim, MBBS, Jeremy Steinman, MD, Jeanette Owusu, MD, Peggy Amoakohene, MD, Ronak M Patel, MD, Janice McMillan, MD
Virginia Center for Diabetes Prevention & Education group [VCDPE]
Top Left : Viola F. Holmes, MS, RD, CDE – Education and Outreach Manager
Top Right: Anne M. Wolf, MS, RDN – Director of the VCDPE
Bottom Center: Rebecca T. Jolin, MS – Health Education Coordinator
Filed Under: DOM in the News, News and Notes, Top News
Tags: December 2020, december medicine matters, December medicine matters newsletter, DOM, Endocrinology, medicine matters