< Back to Alumni List


Phillip D. Levy, M.D., M.P.H.
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Wayne State University School of Medicine
plevy@med.wayne.edu
2008-2011 Cohort
Project Title:  "Pre-Clinical Cardiac Dysfunction Among Asymptomatic Hypertensive Patients in an Urban Emergency Department:  Is a Program Focused on Early Detection and Blood Pressure Control Clinically and Cost Effective?"

About the Project:

This study developed, implemented and evaluated the effectiveness of a novel program to detect and treat pre-clinical cardiac dysfunction in asymptomatic, hypertensive emergency department patients with no usual source of primary care.

Biosketch:

Phillip D. Levy, M.D., M.P.H. is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine and Associate Director of Clinical Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Wayne State University.  Dr. Levy graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1993 with a Bachelor’s degree in biology and went on to receive his M.D. from New York Medical College in 1998.  He completed residency training in emergency medicine at Bellevue Hospital in 2002, serving as chief resident in his final year.  He was subsequently appointed as the Assistant Program Director for the Emergency Medicine Residency at Detroit Receiving Hospital and in 2006, received a Master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Levy’s research interests center on heart failure with a dual focus on emergency department management and early disease detection.  Dr. Levy was the principal investigator for 2 intervention trials which evaluated the relative efficacy of high-dose nitroglycerin for treatment of acute heart failure, both of which were funded by the Emergency Medicine Foundation.  He has served as site-investigator for several observational studies of heart failure and hypertension including the Acute Decompensated Heart Failure National Registry (ADHERE), the Organized Program to Facilitate Life-Saving Treatment in Hospitalized Patients with Heart Failure (OPTIMIZE-HF), the Rapid Emergency Department Heart Failure Outpatient Trial II (REDHOT-II) and Studying the Treatment of Acute Hypertension (STAT).  Dr. Levy is currently an investigator for the American Heart Association’s National Registry of CPR, and an active affiliate of several cardiovascular research collaborative organizations.  He is also a member of the Grants Advisory Panel for the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and most recently, was appointed as the Chair of the Society of Chest Pain Centers’ Acute Heart Failure Committee.

For his Physician Faculty Scholar Program project entitled "Pre-Clinical Cardiac Dysfunction Among Asymptomatic Hypertensive Patients in an Urban Emergency Department: Is a Program Focused on Early Detection and Blood Pressure Control Clinically and Cost Effective?", Dr. Levy expanded on preliminary work supported by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation and the NIH Health Disparities Loan Repayment Program, which identified an exceedingly high prevalence of pre-clinical cardiac disease in the target study population.  To do so, he implemented a multidisciplinary, collaborative program which prospectively identified pre-clinical cardiac disease using validated echocardiography criteria and provide randomized treatment at 2 differing levels of BP control: normal, which is consistent with current JNC 7 recommendations and intensive, which will target a BP of < 120/80.  Effectiveness was evaluated at 1 year by 3 main parameters: 1) actual difference in BP reduction between treatment groups; 2) change in pre-clinical cardiac disease prevalence; and 3) costs associated with pre-clinical disease identification versus potential costs avoided by clinical disease prevention.

< Back to Alumni List