Duke-Margolis is privileged to sponsor post-doctoral students in their advanced exploration of health policy and evidence-based solutions. Two of our post-docs have recently completed their time with Duke-Margolis and are moving on to new faculty positions.

Michelle Franklin, PhD, has joined the Duke Faculty as an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and as Faculty Fellow and Core Faculty within Duke Margolis. A 2018-2020 Duke-Margolis Scholar and 2020 Duke School of Nursing PhD graduate, Michelle’s post-doctoral work at Duke-Margolis focused on pediatric integrated care within North Carolina, the Center’s ongoing COVID response, and Duke-Margolis educational initiatives and mentorship of students and scholars through its Bass Connections project on the NC Early Childhood Action Plan. Through her work with the Department of Psychiatry, she has led studies to develop interventions and health policy solutions to improve the health and well-being of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DDs). Her efforts have included tailoring a Family Partner Coaching intervention to address the needs of caregivers and their children with I/DDs, meaningfully engaging people with developmental disabilities and their caregivers as co-researchers, and identifying and addressing inequities experienced by the I/DD community. In Michelle’s new role as a member of the Duke faculty, she will continue to focus on the intersection of mental health, nursing, and policy and how evidence-based policy solutions can transform the health and well-being of individuals with I/DD.

Salama Freed, PhD, joins George Washington University (GW) as an Assistant Professor at the Milken Institute School of Public Health. During her National Pharmaceutical Council (NPC)/Duke-Margolis Postdoctoral Health Policy Fellowship, Salama contributed to Center research that explored Accountable Care Organizations, Medicare-Medicaid dual eligibility, measuring changes in pharmaceutical pricing and innovation, disparities in telehealth, and medication use patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. She also taught an undergraduate econometrics course at Duke this spring. At GW, Salama will focus on health policy issues related to aging and how to enhance the appreciation of the talents brought to the table by older Americans.

HEALTH POLICY IN ACTION

Core Faculty member Nina Sperber co-authored “COVID-19 Vaccination Intention and Activation among Health Care System Employees: A Mixed-Methods Study” in ScienceDirect’s Vaccine. The findings highlight distinct decision-making profiles associated with COVID-19 vaccination among employees of a VA health care system, and provide tailored recommendations to reduce vaccine hesitancy in this population. Read more about their findings here.

Duke-Margolis Core Faculty member John Purakal co-authored a research article, published by National Library of Medicine, detailing a qualitative study aimed at better understanding how vulnerable and high-risk populations have experienced the pandemic. Click here to read the full article, “Experiences of COVID-19 infection in North Carolina: A qualitative analysis,” to learn more about their methods and findings.

The world is falling even farther behind in its effort to get in front of this pandemic and bring it fully under control. With a tepid global response losing further momentum, it is time to set clear priorities and goals that reflect today’s reality. With this understanding, the COVID Global Accountability Platform (COVID GAP) released two new blog posts this month. The first post, “Toward More Nimble, Equitable Vaccination and Pandemic Response,” explores how global vaccination goals and targets can be reconsidered for broader COVID response efforts. The latest blog post, “Enhanced Preparedness Assessments Require New Capacity Building Approaches,” considers how assessments such as the World Health Organization's Joint External Evaluation Tool have incorporated lessons learned from COVID-19 and how innovative approaches are needed to ensure effective pandemic preparedness.

COVID GAP’s Accountability Reports highlight and analyze recent developments, track progress toward national, regional, and global targets, and identify high-priority recommendations for a more effective, efficient, and equitable pandemic response and preparedness. Drawing on data across many sources, the COVID GAP team tracks important measures of progress on commitments and remaining gaps, helping to hold leaders and organizations to account on these actions. Two updates to the report were released this month. Click here to access all of the COVID GAP publications and Accountability Reports.

Duke-Margolis has joined Duke, other public and private universities, businesses, nonprofits, trade associations and state government to advocate for headquartering the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to North Carolina. The ARPA-H in NC Coalition comprises over 30 partners who are coordinating efforts both locally and in Washington, DC to demonstrate that North Carolina offers the perfect location for the ARPA-H Headquarters. Read more about the ARPA-H in NC Coalition and how North Carolina can help fulfill the mission to provide transformative health solutions for all Americans.

RESEARCH

Duke-Margolis researchers Trevan Locke, Valerie J. Parker, Andrea Thoumi, and Christina Silcox co-authored a new white paper, “Preventing Bias and Inequities in AI-Enabled Health Tools.” With support provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the paper explores key areas where bias and inequities can be introduced in the use of AI in health care and identifies key responsibilities for stakeholders such as regulators, developers, purchasers and data originators, to avoid bias. Read more about their work here.

Duke-Margolis Senior Policy Analyst Rebecca Ray, Assistant Research Director Trevan Locke, and RWE Research Director Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup co-authored a white paper on building a robust real-world data ecosystem that explores considerations and provides recommendations to stakeholders. The paper, “Aligning Shared Evidentiary Needs among Payers and Regulators for a Real-World Data Ecosystem,” chronicles the strong need for improved evidence generation capabilities to answer critical questions faced by regulators and payers. The paper reflects the months-long collaboration of the Shared Evidentiary Opportunities Working Group, which was comprised of representatives from both the Duke-Margolis Real-World Evidence Collaborative and its Value for Medical Products Consortium. Read the full paper and learn more about the work of the Real-World Evidence Collaborative and the Center’s Value for Medical Products Consortium.

Duke-Margolis Core Faculty members Megan Shepherd-Banigan and Courtney Van Houtven co-authored an article published in ScienceDirect’s SSM-Mental Health researching whether increasing support for mental health therapy within the Veteran's social network would improve treatment engagement. Read the full article, “Adapting a family-involved intervention to increase initiation and completion of evidenced-based psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder,” here.

Duke-Margolis researchers Jonathan Gonzalez-Smith, Humphrey Shen, and Christina Silcox published an article in AAMI News, as part of AAMI’s ongoing AI series, entitled “Moving Ahead of the Pack: Understanding Health System Priorities on AI-Enabled Clinical Decision Support.” The article discusses what AI developers should consider when developing AI-enabled clinical decision support tools, based on the Center’s work to understand health system business needs and priorities around AI. Read the piece here.

The work of Duke-Margolis Center researchers and faculty on “Equitable Access to Care and Outcomes Using Telehealth in the Transition to Medicaid Managed Care” was featured in a recent NC Health News article discussing telehealth disparities. The article includes quotes from Rebecca Whitaker and Rushina Cholera from a virtual town hall the Center held in May as well as research findings on equitable access to care using telehealth in the Medicaid program funded by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.

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In January 2022, Duke-Margolis and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) convened a group of experts to discuss clinical endpoints relevant to clinical trials and innovative measurement strategies with the overall goal of supporting the development of safe and effective treatments for those living with NPC. This follow-up webinar will provide an overview of the key themes and future directions shared during the January 2022 workshop and presented in the recently released workshop summary report. Click here for more information and to register.

The public webinar, with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, featured policymakers, researchers, evaluators, implementation leaders, and frontline providers who discussed their experiences with, and thoughts on, the future of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy Opportunities Pilots program. The meeting also examined practical, cross-cutting themes that emerged from researching the planning, capacity-building, and early implementation periods of the program, including successes, lessons learned, challenges encountered, and innovative solutions for overcoming challenges. Click here for more information and to access the event recordings and meeting materials.

Duke-Margolis Center Advisory Board Member Michelle McMurray-Heath was featured in Duke University School of Medicine’s DukeMed Alumni News article, “Making Change: Alumni are forging the future of biotech and the business of health care.” Read more about how her experience at Duke helped shape her career.

Center Research Director for Digital Health, Christina Silcox, participated in a panel discussion at the Opening Plenary session for The American Society of Health Economists’ 11th Annual ASHEcon Conference. Learn more about her session, “AI in Health Care: Implications for Research, Practice, and Policy.”

Center Director Mark McClellan spoke with BioCentury Senior Editor Steve Usdin on a recent podcast episode of The BioCentury Show about the intersection of health, economics and public policy. For more information and to listen to this episode, click here.

Center Director Mark McClellan joined The Hill’s “Future of Health Care Summit” to discuss caring for the nation’s most vulnerable. Dr. McClellan was joined by Jack Hoadley from the Health Policy Institute of Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy. Click here to view a full recording of the event.

Duke-Margolis Core Faculty members had a busy July with publications, awards, and appointments. Here’s what they have been up to:

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.