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Philanthropy | Division of Medicine Annual Report

Learn all about the Department of Medicine's mission of philanthropy during FY26.

Event Spotlight: An Affair of the Heart

An Affair of the Heart, hosted by the MUSC Heart & Vascular Health Institute (HVI) leadership and the HVI Advisory Board at The Charleston Place, was a resounding success, raising $1 million through the generosityof nearly 300 friends and supporters!

The evening—in its third year—featured an exciting live auction and amoving patient story that illustrated the life-changing impact of HVI’s work. It also showcased the expertise and achievements of HVI physician specialists whose research, treatments, and patient care are redefining cardiovascular health.

Thanks to the heartfelt generosity of our supporters, these funds will drive advancements ineducation, research, and patient care—transforming lives and shaping the future of heart and vascular medicine.

Donors pictured with Dr. Ennis James and Katie Benfield
L-R: Bob and Sandy Merchant, Walter Ennis James IV, M.D., program director of the Susan Pearlstine Sarcoidosis Center of Excellence, and Katie Benfield, nurse navigator.

Grateful Patients Become Champions of Sarcoidosis Research

Inspired by the care that made a difference in their own lives, Bob and Sandy Merchant have committed $1.5 million to establish the Merchant Family Sarcoidosis Endowed Chair in the Department of Medicine. An endowed chair provides permanent support for a faculty leader, helping the department recruit and retain exceptional experts and giving them
the resources to advance research, education and patient care.

The Merchant Family Endowed Chair will support the director of the Susan Pearlstine Sarcoidosis Center of Excellence, strengthening leadership in sarcoidosis research and care at MUSC. Through their gift, the Merchants are investing in greater understanding of this complex disease, new discoveries and better outcomes for people living with sarcoidosis.

Two women in a lab. One is facing the camera. She has blue and white hair and is wearing round glasses. The other woman's face is covered by long brown hair. They are both wearing white lab coats.

A Gift That Connects Heart and Mind

A generous anonymous gift is powering research into the shared biology of Alzheimer’s disease and heart failure. Cardiologist Federica del Monte, M.D., Ph.D., discovered years ago that the hearts of patients with cardiomyopathy and heart failure contain the same plaques and tangles found in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients, work that reframed heart failure as what she calls “the Alzheimer’s disease of the heart.”

The gift allowed her lab to acquire specialized equipment to test whether echocardiography can detect amyloid in the heart as reliably as PET imaging, a step toward earlier, less invasive diagnosis. Del Monte’s study follows three groups—patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction, patients with Alzheimer’s disease, and healthy controls—tracking each through biomarker testing, cognitive assessments, and cardiac imaging over eight years.

Her long-term vision is a hybrid heart/brain clinic at MUSC, bringing neurologists, cardiologists, physical therapists, and psychologists together for patients whose heart and brain health may be more connected than once believed. This donor-funded work reflects how philanthropy accelerates discovery that might otherwise take years to fund through traditional channels, giving del Monte’s team the tools to pursue a question with the potential to reshape how two of medicine’s most challenging diseases are diagnosed.

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