Two members of the Department of Pediatrics and one member of the Department of Medicine have received Colin's Kids Foundation awards. The mission of Colin’s Kids Foundation is to provide funding to advance medical research related to congenital heart defects (CHDs) and to provide financial assistance to families struggling to obtain the best care for their children.
Recipients of the 2020 Colin's Kids Foundation awards are listed below:
Andrew McCrary, MD, MSc
Medical Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics
Division of Cardiology
Award: Andrew King Research Award
Andrew McCrary, MD, MSc is a medical instructor in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology at Duke. He received his bachelor of science and medical degrees from Emory University. He completed his pediatrics residency and pediatric cardiology fellowship at Duke. Additionally, while in cardiology fellowship, he completed a global health pathway with a master of science degree from Duke University. He joined the faculty of Duke University in 2019.
McCrary is a clinician with research interests in advanced non-invasive cardiac imaging. During his fellowship and global health training, he developed expertise in cardiac imaging while leading a large study in western Kenya assessing the heart function of children living with HIV infection. Now as a faculty member, McCrary is interested in advancing the diagnostic utility of echocardiography in heart function assessment. With support from Colin’s Kids, he will extend a current collaboration with Duke Biomedical Engineering to utilize some of the first ever high-frame-rate echocardiography (HFR Echo) in children with congenital heart disease. The goal is to assess the usefulness of HFR Echo in determining problems with ventricular relaxation in children with tetralogy of Fallot. These early pilot data may pioneer the next phase of echocardiography in pediatric congenital heart disease assessment.
Jordan E. Ezekian, MD, MPH
Third Year Fellow in the Department of Pediatrics
Division of Cardiology
Award: Colin Molloy Research Award
Jordan Ezekian, MD, MPH is a third year fellow in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Cardiology at Duke. She graduated from Western Kentucky University with a bachelor’s degree in biology and earned a Master of Public Health degree prior to entering medical school. She received her medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine and completed her pediatrics residency at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Throughout pediatrics residency and during fellowship at Duke, she has been active in public health advocacy efforts at both the state and national levels. As a first year fellow, Ezekian collaborated with Salim Idriss, MD, PhD to start Project ADAM North Carolina, a school-based advocacy and outreach initiative of the Duke Pediatric and Congenital Heart Center, where she serves as the co-medical director. In this role, she is passionate about making North Carolina schools “heart safe” advocating for increased school preparedness for sudden cardiac arrest events. Ezekian is also a post-doctoral TL-1 Physician Research Fellow with the Duke Clinical and Translational Institute (CTSI) and conducts translational research in the Landstrom laboratory, housed in the Duke Cardiovascular Research Center. Ezekian’s work focuses on the genetic causes of cardiovascular disorders. Upon completion of her fellowship, she plans to pursue advanced training in interventional electrophysiology.
With support from Colin’s Kids, Ezekian and a multidisciplinary team of researchers at Duke will analyze genomic data from an NIH database of families with congenital heart disease to identify genes or areas of the genome that are responsible for increasing the risk of a child being born with congenital heart disease. The genetic causes of the most common forms of cyanotic heart disease remain poorly understood. Exploring the genetic predispositions to congenital heart disease will help to address important knowledge gaps in the field of pediatric cardiology and will identify molecular targets for future studies exploring the genetics of structural heart disease and novel therapies.
Sarah Goldstein, MD
Fourth Year Fellow in the Department of Medicine
Division of Cardiology
Award: Colin Molloy Research Award
Sarah Goldstein, MD is currently a fourth year fellow in adult cardiology in the Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiology at Duke. She graduated with distinction from the University of Virginia with a bachelor's degree in spanish and biology. After completing her medical degree with distinction at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, she completed internal medicine residency training at Duke University. Goldstein is currently participating in a two year clinical research fellowship at the Duke Clinical Research Institute. Her research interests include outcomes and prediction modeling in patients with adult congenital heart disease and cardiovascular disease in pregnancy. Following completion of her current fellowship, she will pursue advanced clinical training in adult congenital heart disease.
Goldstein received the Colin Molloy Research Award to support her project entitled “Predicting Adverse Pregnancy-Related Events in Women with Congenital Heart Disease.” Maternal mortality is increasing in the United States, primarily due to cardiovascular disease and congenital heart disease is a major driver of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality associated with pregnancy. Effective pre-conception counseling is extremely important in mitigating poor pregnancy outcomes in this population. The purpose of the funded project is to develop a novel risk prediction tool that can be used to help provide improved, patient-centered pre-conception counseling for women with congenital heart disease who are considering pregnancy.