Kussin Receives Duke University Honor
Professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at Duke University, Peter Kussin, MD, typically spends four months per year working with the AMPATH partnership in Eldoret, Kenya, caring for some of the sickest patients while training the next generation of Kenyan and North American physicians and doing research focused on strengthening care of non-communicable diseases.
This month, Duke University President Vincent Price will present Kussin with the Duke Presidential Award for his compassion, humility and highest standard of excellence.
Dr. Peter Kussin
Kussin began going to Eldoret about five years ago on behalf of Duke’s Hubert-Yeargan Center for Global Health, a member of the AMPATH consortium of North American academic health centers. While in Eldoret he works in the intensive care unit, the general medicine wards as well as conducting pulmonary consultations and clinic. He also conducts research with medical students, fellows and Kenyan colleagues related to characterizing lung function and obstructive lung disease in western Kenya, piloting innovative models of cardiac rehabilitation, examining attitudes of religious leaders about palliative care and identifying surgical patients who might potentially benefit from palliative care services. His most recent work with Neelima Navuluri, MD, a Duke pulmonary and critical care fellow, is seeking to identify and characterize patients discharged from the hospital who need home oxygen.
“As a pulmonary and critical care doctor I’ve been interested in patient preferences and outcomes since the beginning of my career,” said Kussin. “That has been the focus of much of my research and teaching. The research projects come from three decades of caring for people with advanced chronic conditions and life threatening illnesses.
Kussin has also worked to set up two wellness spaces and a process for debriefing with the staff at Moil Teaching and Referral Hospital. Debriefing is a formal or semi-formal process to help the staff discuss and deal with challenging or day-to-day issues at their workplace. A trained medical psychologist is now conducting debriefing sessions with nurses, students and other staff throughout the hospital on a semi-regular basis using a model developed at Duke. “I hope to continue to expand the debriefing process. It has been successful beyond my prediction or imagination,” said Kussin.
Dr. Kussin at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital
Kussin is committed to the bilateral education exchange mission of AMPATH and mentors a cadre of Kenyan and North American trainees in both research and clinical settings. One of his current mentees is Kenyan registrar Betty Sierra who is conducting a “goals of care” study as her Mmed thesis. Goals of care conversations include discussion of patient treatment preferences; what patients and families understand about their illness and how to best match their preferences and values to the treatment they are receiving. “The goal is not to import a U.S. or North American model for this process, but to explore a Kenyan model for these conversations that is socially, culturally and contextually appropriate,” Kussin continued.
Dr. Kussin with the team from Duke and Kenyan students
Palliative care for people with chronic incurable or chronic life-threatening conditions means managing symptoms and improving quality of life while making sure that the preferences for care are consistent with the care being given. Kussin said some of the cultural, societal and spiritual norms of Kenyan society may not always align perfectly with the World Health Organization’s principles of palliative care. “Exploring that intersection between what the guidelines say and what is contextually and locally appropriate is really quite interesting,” he reflected.
Despite the physical, mental and personal challenge of working in a resource-limited environment, Kussin says, “I receive a lot more than I give. I don’t see myself as an altruist. I meet really wonderful people and take care of really sick people. I enjoy working with, teaching and learning from Kenyan trainees and colleagues and having the privilege of taking care of the wonderful, resilient, decent people of Kenya,” he concluded.
Congratulations Dr. Kussin on your award and thank you for your work as part of the AMPATH partnership!
The ICU staff at Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya, congratulates Prof. Kussin!
Dr. Kussin’s colleagues in Kenya send warmest congratulations!
Preparing for heart surgery in Eldoret