In This Issue

Policy Impact: Duke-Margolis and Health Care Value Week

Upcoming Events: The Future of Accountable Care

People: Jonathan Zhang

Electronic Health Record Data

Duke-Margolis has released a new white paper, co-authored by Matt D’Ambrosio, Patrick Rodriguez, Nora Emmott, and Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup, that shared best practices for electronic health record- (EHR) sourced data accrual management. Their recommendations were particularly aimed at helping trial sponsors and data collaborators seeking to support EHR-sourced data relevance, reliability, and quality. Read more here.

Advancing Care for Spine-Related Disorders

Policy Research Assistant Inga Morken, and Core Faculty members Christian Péan and Christine Goertz, co-authored an article in Health Affairs Forefront that highlighted the urgent need to address the rising costs and poor outcomes associated with spine-related disorders. By shifting toward a value-based care model, health care systems can improve patient outcomes while reducing unnecessary interventions and expenditures. Read more here.

Prescription Digital Therapeutics

Duke-Margolis released a meeting summary from the private convening, “Prescription Digital Therapeutics: Measuring and Incentivizing Clinical Impact.” During this event, stakeholders discussed timely policy issues around the development and use of prescription digital therapeutics; in particular, they explored challenges and solutions to generating robust evidence and shared potential reimbursement structures to incentivize innovation and uptake of high-impact products. Read the summary here.

NC Health Care Reform Executive Roundtable

During their latest meeting, the North Carolina Health Care Reform Executive Roundtable hosted a fireside chat with new NC Department of Health and Human Services Secretary, Dev Sanvgai, and Duke-Margolis Institute Director Mark McClellan. Members also discussed primary care workforce challenges, support for advanced primary care, opportunities to address health disparities, and priorities for collaborative action in light of new state and federal administrations. The Executive Roundtable continues its focus on collaboration and partnership, providing a space to facilitate strategic discussions and identify areas for collective action related to crucial issues in health reform.



Policy Impact

Duke-Margolis and Health Care Value Week

In conjunction with the fourth annual Health Care Value Week, Global Health Care hosted a Virtual Value-Based Payment Summit. Mark McClellan, Rob Saunders, David Muhlestein, Amir Dan Rubin, and Susan Dentzer shared their insights on the path forward for the value-based care movement during sessions throughout the summit. A full recording of the summit will be made available here, and a recording of Mark and Rob’s panel is available to watch here.



The Future of Accountable Care: Potential Paths to Making "Alternative" Payment Models the Norm

March 19, 2025 | 1:00 – 2:00 PM ET

Location: Virtual via Zoom

Five years after the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) set their ambitious 2030 accountable care goals, the broader accountable care landscape is at a potential inflection point. As growth in accountable care programs in Traditional Medicare continues and the majority of Medicare beneficiaries are now in Medicare Advantage plans, questions about the future and sustainability of accountable care models are emerging amidst the backdrop of priorities being set by the new presidential administration. During this webinar, leading experts will discuss federal policy opportunities and priorities to transform the health system.

Learn more and register here.

Your Treatment and Your Community: Advancing Evidence and Policy for Medical Products that Impact Others

March 20, 2025 | 1:00 – 5:00 PM ET

Location: Virtual via Zoom

Because of how easily transmissible many infectious diseases are, individual-level (direct) and population-level (indirect) effects can be conveyed through efforts to prevent, treat, and diagnose infection. Following up on a previous event introducing a policy framework to incorporate population considerations into regulatory and reimbursement pathways, Duke-Margolis will host a workshop to present policy approaches and facilitate discussion on how to better integrate indirect benefits to achieve more comprehensive transmission reduction strategies.

Learn more and register here.

Core Faculty member Jonathan Zhang was quoted in The Washington Post’s article that discussed the “Make America Healthy Again” federal commission and its potential impact on the growing mental health crisis among children and teens.

Core Faculty member Mike Pignone was quoted in a New York Times article that reported on a study examining social media influence on medical information.

Clinical Research as a Care Option interviewed Assistant Research Director Trevan Locke for their podcast episode that discussed financial barriers to getting coverage for clinical trials. Listen to it here.

Mark McClellan and Trevan Locke both spoke at this year’s SCOPE Summit, which focused on “Driving Innovation in Clinical Trials and Digital Health.” Mark was a keynote speaker for a forward-looking presentation on clinical research innovation, while Trevan discussed opportunities to leverage electronic health data to improve clinical outcomes and support regulatory decision-making.



Applied Clinical Trials reported on the SCOPE Summit and quoted Mark in their article—read it here.

Mark also spoke at “Vital Directions for Health & Health Care: Priorities for 2025,” an event hosted by the National Academy of Medicine to review recommendations from a series of papers recently published in Health Affairs. Mark co-authored one of these papers, “Updating US Public Health For Healthier Communities,” and discussed key findings during this virtual briefing.

National Public Radio interviewed Mark for the All Things Considered podcast series, specifically discussing the potential impact of the Department of Government Efficiency on CMS activities and operations. Listen or read the transcript here.



KFF Health News also interviewed Mark for their What the Health? podcast series and discussed court actions to try and curb health spending cuts. Listen or read the transcript here.

Core Faculty member Brystana Kaufman spoke with Michigan Medicine for an episode of their Minding Memory podcast series, particularly discussing the CMS’ Guiding an Improved Dementia Experience care model and how it is being implemented. The discussion was based on insights from an article Brystana co-authored last year, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Research Director Christina Silcox was quoted in an article from MedCentral, which discussed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s new guidance on the use of artificial intelligence in drug development. In this article, Christina also referenced an event Duke-Margolis hosted on this topic in 2022.

Core Faculty member Gavin Yamey co-authored an op-ed in Think Global Health that offered recommendations for fighting future pandemics through the lens of game theory, aligning incentives globally across vaccine manufacturers for a “win-win” scenario. Read the article here.



Gavin was quoted in McClatchy DC’s article discussing a North Carolina lawsuit pushing back against recent National Institutes of Health funding cuts.

Opportunities at the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy

Do you want to be part of health policy in action? Do you want to work on the leading health policy issues confronting cities, states, the nation, and the globe? The Duke-Margolis team is a dynamic, high impact national leader in leveraging policy to ensure high quality, affordable care for all. Multiple positions are currently available with new ones added frequently. Click here to view all of our career opportunities.