Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Eric Velazquez to co-lead global Center of Excellence

The DCRI's Eric Velazquez, MD, will co-lead a major health project that is a part of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's (NHLBI) new global health initiative focusing on chronic heart and lung disease.

Velazquez is the director of the Cardiac Diagnostic Unit and the Echocardiology Laboratories in the Duke Heart Center . He will be co-leading a Center of Excellence at Moi University School of Medicine, in Eldoret , Kenya. Velazquez will remain at the DCRI, while Sylvester Kimaiyo, MBChB, will be the co-leader based in Kenya.

Michael Merson, MD, director of the Duke Global Health Institute, was also named a co-leader of the global health initiative, for a Center of Excellence in Beijing, China.

The two awards are among ten contracts totaling more than $34 million that will fund a network of Centers of Excellence in Chronic Disease in developing countries around the world. Each Center of Excellence will have an in-country leader as well as a co-lead at a major academic medical center in the U.S. or Canada. The venture is a partnership between NHLBI and the Minneapolis-based UnitedHealth Groups.

Velazquez' project will focus on training researchers and clinicians to better understand the causes and treatment of chronic heart and lung disease, both of which are expected to become more prevalent in Kenya as HIV and other infectious diseases become better controlled.

Moi University School of Medicine has partnered with several universities in the past to develop a large network of HIV services across 40 clinical sites in the region. Services will be offered through that network. Kimaiyo says heart disease is becoming a leading cause of death in Kenya , and there are very few resources available to fight it.

Specific research for the Moi University Center of Excellence will focus on two areas: the prevalence, causes, and outcomes of heart failure and hypertension in Western Kenya , and the relationship between indoor air pollution and lung disease among women.

Additional staff and faculty members from the DCRI who are part of the Kenya project include Ralph Corey, MD, Kevin Anstrom, PhD, Jennifer Li, MD, and Cynthia Binanay.

Information on all of the UnitedHealth and the NHLBI Collaborating Centers of Excellence can be found on the NHLBI Global Health Initiative Website, www.globalhealth.nhlbi.nih.gov