Duke-Margolis Newsletter: A monthly newsletter for Duke Faculty, Students, and Staff from the
Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy
Duke-Margolis Newsletter: March 2020
We treasure everyone in the Duke-Margolis community and hope that you and your family and friends are safe and well. We offer our continued gratitude to all our clinical Duke-Margolis faculty members. Your clinical and health policy work–especially during this unprecedented time–makes a big difference to the lives of your patients, their families, our community and the nation. Thank you.

Duke-Margolis, faculty and researchers from Duke University and Duke Health System, and leaders from across the health care and health policy landscape are working together to advance collective recommendations to address the COVID-19 pandemic. The Center will be releasing new working papers, holding informational webinars, and centralizing useful resources for the policy community in the coming days and weeks. These resources will be centralized  here  and updated regularly. Specific updates are provided below.
COVID HEALTH POLICY
DUKE-MARGOLIS RECOMMENDS ADVANCES TO COMPREHENSIVE COVID RESPONSE

Duke-Margilis is issuing a series of working policy papers, in conjunction with national experts, to recommend next steps to respond to COVID. The first paper, authored by Scott Gottlieb and Center Director Mark McClellan, includes recommendations to advance effective treatments and accelerate surveillance for COVID-19 , including the formation of Federal task forces to coordinate diagnostic and pharmaceutical development, can be found  here .

A follow-up paper with more detailed recommendations on the near-term needs associated with the development of and ready access to diagnostic testing capabilities, can be found  here . Additional papers are immediately forthcoming.
 
A bi-partisan Senate   letter   was sent to the White House supporting the call from Drs. McClellan and Gottlieb’s paper to establish two task forces focused, respectively, on medical product development and critical hospital supply chain shortages. A similar bi-partisan was sent from the House . I f the task forces go forward, the Center stands ready to work with the federal agencies to inform their structure and partner with the members to help inform policy.

In addition, Mark co-authored a report, National Coronavirus Response: A Road Map to Reopening, providing a road map for navigating the current COVID-19 pandemic within the United States. The report outlines specific directions for adapting our current public-health approach away from mitigations strategies as we limit the spread of COVID-19 and transition to new tools/approaches to prevent further spread.

Duke-Margolis and Alexandria Summit hosted a webinar for more than 300 policy makers on Building COVID Diagnostic Capacity Now and for the Future . Watch the video .
News
Boulding and McClellan on COVID

Director Mark McCellan had a virtual conversation with the Dean of Fuqua Business School Bill Boulding about the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

DUKE-MARGOLIS COMMENTS ON COVID-19

Center media outreach on COVID has been extensive. Here are just a few examples:

Research Associate Dave Anderson co-wrote an op-ed in the New York Times on COVID-19 and the possibility of surprise billing being a deterrent to care seeking behavior.

Washington Post coverage of the COVID Road Map report here; Mark McClellan appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on March 20, participated in a Health Management Academy podcast, and participated in a Duke media briefing on March 27 that resulted in numerous news articles. On Monday, March 30, Mark appeared on Fox Business “After the Bell” and conducted in interview on survelliance with the Los Angeles Times. 

Core Faculty Member Charlene Wong was quoted in an article from Kaiser Health News about reopening the health insurance marketplaces during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Core Faculty Members Courtney Harold Van Houtven and Nathan Boucher co-wrote an article for the International Long-Term Care Policy Network on COVID-19’s impact on long-term care services and support systems.
People
Christina Silcox moderated a session called “Digital Tools for Post-registration Surveillance” for the National Academy of Medicine’s workshop “ The Role of Digital Health Technologies in Drug Development."

Congratulations to Core Faculty Member Beth Gifford who was promoted to Associate Research Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy.

Core Faculty Member Arti Rai co-authored an article with Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University that examines whether the U.S. government should enforce its patent rights against the pharmaceutical industry for the counter intuitive purpose of reducing price and expanding access.

Research Fellow Brystana Kaufman co-authored an article in the Journal of Palliative Medicine seeks to provide palliative care teams nationally with a variety of population health strategies and tools to guide palliative care delivery throughout the health system and beyond.

Deputy Director of Academics Gillian Sanders Schmidler and Research Fellow Brystana Kaufman co-wrote an article in American Heart Journal that highlights the evidence gaps in clinical and policy questions regarding cardiac resynchronization therapy.

M argolis Scholar in Nursing Michelle Franklin successfully defended her thesis—VIRTUALLY—titled "Examination of Health Care Transition Experiences & Health Status Trajectories of Adolescents & Young Adults with Intellectual Disability.” Congratulations Michelle! Well done!!
Submissions Welcome!
Interesting Project? Funding Opportunities? News and Events? Awards and Honors? 
Policy Impact? Op Eds? 

We're looking for ways to highlight your accomplishments and share information.
Email submissions to dukemargolis@duke.edu.