The Duvernoy Dynasty
At Michigan, medicine is a family affair

Wolf and Claire Duvernoy Photo:Martin Vloet

When Claire Sibylle Duvernoy (M.D. 1990, Residency 1993) was a little girl, someone made the mistake of giving her a nurse’s outfit, while her brother, Christian, received a white coat and toy stethoscope. The future physician was not amused. “My mother says I stamped my foot and said: ‘No! I’m going to be a doctor, too!’”

It’s not surprising that Claire Duvernoy grew up wanting to be a physician. Her father, Wolf Duvernoy, M.D., was chief of cardiology at Detroit’s Providence Hospital with a thriving private practice. Claire often accompanied her father on weekend rounds at the hospital. She learned to read EKGs by practicing on the family dog. And for vacations, the entire family went to cardiology meetings.

Today, Wolf and Claire Duvernoy have more than a close family relationship. They are the only father-daughter physicians in the U-M Medical School. She is an assistant professor of internal medicine-cardiology who specializes in interventional cardiology, conducts research on cardio-vascular disease in women, and directs the Cardiac Catheterization Lab at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System. He is a clinical professor of medicine who teaches house officers and treats patients at outpatient clinics in the U-M Health System.

“Wolf Duvernoy is the kind of cardiologist I would want were I to be a patient, and the kind of role model I aspire to be as a cardiologist,” says Kim A. Eagle, M.D. — the Albion Walter Hewlett Professor of Internal Medicine and chief of clinical cardiology in the U-M Health System — who two years ago recruited Duvernoy to join the faculty — and his daughter, a faculty member since 1998.

If a “doctor gene” exists, scientists will find it in the Duvernoy family genome. The first Dr. Duvernoy on record moved to Germany from France in 1698 to serve as personal physician to Duke Friedrich Karl von Wuerttemberg. Continuing the long family tradition, Wolf’s father and older brother were physicians in their native Germany.

In 1960, Wolf Duvernoy graduated from the Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen Medical School in Tübingen, Germany. He and his wife, Eva, a multi-lingual interpreter, moved to Michigan so Wolf could accept a fellowship in internal medicine and cardiology at Detroit’s Henry Ford Hospital.

“Maybe because we were immigrants, we have always been a very close family,” says Claire Duvernoy. “Papa worked long hours, but we always waited to have dinner until he came home. My brother and I internalized the values our parents showed us every day — the importance of education, hard work and trying to be the best you can be.” Christian Duvernoy went on to become an attorney currently living in Belgium.

Claire Duvernoy’s dream of becoming a physician nearly ended in 1985, just six weeks after she enrolled in the U-M Medical School. “I had just finished my first gross anatomy exam and was crossing Fuller Road, when I was hit by a drunk driver,” she says. Seriously injured, Claire had to leave medical school for a year to recover. “I got gray hair overnight,” adds Wolf Duvernoy.

In 1990, Claire Duvernoy graduated from the U-M Medical School and went on to complete her residency and fellowships in internal medicine and cardiology at U-M. “Cardiology combines the aspects of medicine I like best,” she says. “There’s the instant gratification of being a surgeon, plus all the cerebral aspects of internal medicine.”

“Cardiology is a demanding profession, and especially difficult for a woman with a family,” says Wolf Duvernoy. “You are caring for very sick patients and you must be available for them. Traditionally, in this country, women have gravitated to other disciplines, such as pediatrics.”

It was during her U-M fellowship that Claire met her future husband, Frank Bogun, M.D., who had come to Ann Arbor from Germany to study the field of cardiac electrophysiology with Fred Morady, M.D., a U-M professor of internal medicine.

“I can always tell if someone’s from Germany,” says Claire. “We spoke the same dialect and our families were from the same part of the country.” When Claire spent a year studying in Germany, the relationship progressed. They married one year later, and Bogun now is completing his cardiology fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital.

“What she won’t tell you is that she received Fulbright and Humboldt Scholarships to study in Germany, and that she presented a paper at the World Cardiology Congress in Berlin,” adds Wolf, who points out a framed certificate in Claire’s office indicating that she is the recipient of a scholars’ grant from the Society for Women’s Health Research and Pfizer, Inc.

Drawing by Claire Duvernoy, age 10.

To his daughter’s somewhat embarrassed surprise, he also pulls from his briefcase a drawing of the transvenous system that was part of Claire’s science fair project when she was 10 or 11. “Isn’t it amazing that she was able to do this at such a young age?” he asks.

Claire Duvernoy works a four-day week now, so she can spend time at home with two-year-old Maximillian, who naturally has his own little doctor’s kit and a “Future Cardiologist” T-shirt. “I was always working, so I never diapered my own children,” says Grandpapa Duvernoy. “But now I’m learning from Max.”

Visibly proud of her accomplishments, Wolf Duvernoy likes to tell people he’s following in his daughter’s footsteps. “When one of my patients needs a catheterization or arteriogram, I call Claire and ask: ‘Can you take just one more for Dad?’”

“He gives me all the hard cases,” Claire responds.

“Claire has the right approach; she’s very attached to her patients,” Wolf says. “Our family tradition is that the patient always comes first.”

—SFP