Patient Care & Community Health News

Dr. Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, associate professor in Duke’s Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, has been named North Carolina's 2021 Family Physician of the Year by the North Carolina Academy of Family Physicians (NCAFP). The honor is the most prestigious award from the NCAFP, the state's largest specialty medical association, comprised of more than 4,300 members.

Raman Norhia, M.D., joined the clinical faculty of the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health on August 1, 2021. Norhia earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University in 2015, and completed the Lawrence Family Medicine Residency Program in 2019. He completed the Duke Hospital Medicine Fellowship at Duke Regional Hospital in 2021. Norhia will care for patients at Duke Family Medicine Center.

Faculty in the Division of Family Medicine in the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health have become the first to officially move into Duke Health’s new clinical practice model.

Annie Dotson joined the clinical faculty of the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health on July 1, 2021. She received a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts from Florida State University in 2007, a Master of Science in Public Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2011, and her Doctor of Medicine from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2015. Dotson completed family medicine residency at the University of New Mexico in 2018, and was the NRSA Primary Care Research Fellow at University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 2021. Dotson will care for patients at Duke Family Medicine Center and Duke Regional Hospital.

Last year, we chronicled the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic from the eyes of those on the front lines in the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health. We recently caught up with two of those providers — Debra Whiteheart, MHS, PA-C, assistant medical director at Duke Family Medicine Center, and John Ragsdale, M.D., chief of the Division of Family Medicine and vice chair for clinical services in the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health — to see how things are going one year later.

Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, M.D., FAAFP, associate professor of family medicine and community health, is the 2020-21 recipient of the F. Marian Bishop Leadership Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) Foundation.

It’s no secret that the COVID-19 era is one like no other. 

“We’re living in a challenging time, and we don’t want risk factors to go unchecked,” says Anthony Viera, M.D., MPH, professor and chair of the Department of Family Medicine & Community Health. 

February is American Heart Month, and Viera says heart health should not be disregarded, even with the current focus on COVID-19. 

Duke University has been awarded a Eugene Washington PCORI Engagement Award to study the health concerns most important to the local Black community, particularly as they relate to COVID-19.

Duke Family Medicine Center will soon welcome new providers to the clinic. Sara Mazzarelli, MHS, PA-C, and Greg Sawin, M.D., MPH, have been caring for patients at Duke Family Medicine North Duke Street alongside Medical Director Brian Halstater M.D.

Melissa Nicole Burnside, M.D., MHS, joins the department as a National Clinician Scholar. She earned a B.A. in Public Health from Johns Hopkins University in 2007, an MHS in Environmental Health from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2008, and an M.D., from The Ohio State University College of Medicine in 2016.