A key component of the Duke-Margolis commitment to health equity is to be a health policy education and training leader that is anti-racist, and prepares the next generation of health care leaders to advance health equity for all, particularly, historically marginalized populations.

As part of this work, the Center released its “Health Equity and Policy Toolkit for Educators,” created by its Education Team and members of the Center’s Anti-Racism and Equity Committee. The Toolkit is a curated collection of resources and guidance designed to assist educators in embedding health equity principles further into the Center’s academic programming. Click here to download the Toolkit.

HEALTH POLICY IN ACTION

Director Mark McClellan and 11 leaders in global health policy issued an open letter to the Biden Administration urging high-level US leadership to address the escalating global vaccine crisis. The authors call on the Administration and Congress to take immediate action in specific areas that will help mitigate death and suffering and chart a sustained exit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Duke-Margolis also joined 400 U.S. civil society groups calling on President Biden to support the waiver of intellectual property rights for COVID-19 therapeutics and vaccines. Read more about these campaigns in coverage by The New York Times and The Washington Post.

Duke-Margolis Core Faculty Member Krishna Udayakumar joined Duke colleagues for a Duke media briefing, “What India’s COVID Crisis Means for the World.” Listen to the briefing. Krishna also co-authored an opinion piece in the MIT Technology Review, “What India need to get through its covid crisis,” which discusses how combating India’s COVID surge will require aggressive public health measures, emergency aid, and a major global ramp-up of vaccine production. Read the full piece here.

Core Faculty member Gavin Yamey commented on a range of issues related to COVID-19 and its global impact, including the rise in antisemitism in a MedPAGE op/ed, to the global rollout of vaccines at a United Kingdom’s Parliamentary hearing, to an interview with BBC World on how to vaccinate the world.

Core Faculty Member Kate Bundorf co-authored a working paper, “Risk Perceptions and Protective Behaviors: Evidence from COVID-19 Pandemic,” published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The paper analyzes individuals’ relationships between subjective risk beliefs and protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic. The authors found that people substantially overestimate the absolute level of risk associated with economic activity but have correct signals for relative risk. Read more about the data and the authors’ findings here.

Duke-Margolis issued new guidance on COVID-19 testing specifically for businesses as they work through how to protect their vaccinated and unvaccinated employees and customers. The new report, co-authored by Duke-Margolis researchers and faculty, Michelle Franklin, Christina Silcox, Rebecca Ray, Mira Gill, Ethan Borre, Susan Dentzer, and Mark McClellan, and made possible with funding from The Rockefeller Foundation, provides businesses and organizations with three, key steps to develop customized COVID-19 testing plans that will help reduce spread of COVID-19 in the workplace and keep workers, customers, and others as healthy and safe as possible. Read the full guide, executive summary, and infographic here.

Core faculty member Gavin Yamey comments on the impact of the CDC’s change in masking guidelines in his latest The CDC’s Abrupt Change to Mask Guidelines Puts People at Risk.

Center state policy analysts Katie Greene and Hemi Tewarson co-authored “State Strategies for Addressing Barriers During the Early US COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign,” published in the American Journal of Public Health. The article addresses the unique role that state and regional governments play in ensuring proper vaccine distribution and discusses the disconnect between federal projections and state vaccine rollouts. The authors also address the issues states face with the need for rapid and widespread vaccine administration. Read the paper here. Hemi discussed the shift from mass vaccination sites to microtargeting in those communities most need in an NBC News report.

Duke-Margolis issued “Addressing Early Challenges in COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution: State Strategies to Achieve Efficiency and Equity,” co-authored by Senior Policy Analyst Kirk Williamson and Visiting Policy Associate Katie Greene. As states shift efforts to reach unvaccinated individuals in a variety of community settings, the report synthesizes early lessons learned to provide a framework for improving vaccine uptake and ensuring no person or community is left behind. Read the report.

A letter from Representative Deborah Ross (NC-02) to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the Director of the CDC, and Jeff Zients, the White House COVID Response Coordinator, highlighted the Duke-Margolis paper, “Prioritizing Equity in COVID-19 Vaccinations: Promising Practices from States to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities.” The letter discusses measures North Carolina is taking to reduce barriers to vaccine access in historically marginalized communities. Rep. Ross also references efforts to improve race and ethnicity data regarding vaccine distribution as highlighted in the Duke-Margolis report, which was developed by Center authors by Andrea Thoumi and Hemi Tewarson in partnership with National Governors Association. Read the paper here.

RESEARCH

Duke-Margolis Center Research Assistant Kamaria Kaalund, Scholar Ethan Borre, and Core Faculty members Osondu Ogbuoji and Gillian Sanders-Schmidler co-authored “Evidence gaps in economic analyses of hearing healthcare: A systematic review,” published in the Lancet’s EClinicalMedicine. Their work identifies and interprets literature that explores the economic efficiency of hearing health care interventions as well as the gap in evidence that remains in low- and middle-income countries. Read the paper here.

Core Faculty member Bradi Granger and former Margolis Intern Cameron Eck co-authored an abstract in Circulation regarding a hypertension-reduction program aimed at addressing racial and socioeconomic disparities in hypertension prevalence and treatment. Read the abstract here.

Research Associated Beena Bhuiyan Khan and Policy Analyst Rebecca Ray presented “Ensuring Effective Use of Cell Therapies,” which outlines a policy framework to strengthen post-market evidence generation for cell therapies. View their poster presentation.

Margolis Scholar Julian Xie, with the support of Core Faculty member Corinna Sorenson, is the lead author of “The Impact of a Produce Prescription Programme on Healthy Food Purchasing and Diabetes-Related Health Outcomes,” published by Public Health Nutrition. The paper evaluated the Durham-based program used by 699 food-insecure participants and concluded it can increase healthy food purchasing among food-insecure people, which may improve chronic disease. Read the paper here.

Duke-Margolis convened a webinar on combating rising antimicrobial resistance and efforts to support novel antibiotic development and availability. Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO) joined Center Director Mark McCellan for a fireside chat, where the Senator discuss the vital importance of passing the PASTEUR Act given the country’s recent experience with COVID-19 and argued his reasoning to reintroduce his bipartisan antimicrobial drug reimbursement bill. Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, Senior Global Health Officer in the Department of Health and Human Services Lynn Filpi, and CDC Senior Advisor for Antibiotic Resistance Michael Craig also participated in the in-depth discussion. Read coverage by Inside Health Policy. Watch the recording here.

Despite the increased burden of COVID-19 in Black, Latinx, and American Indian populations, data from every state shows that these individuals have also received fewer vaccinations when compared to their relative disease burden. President Biden hopes to take advantage of public-private partnerships to improve the equity and efficiency of vaccine distribution. Duke-Margolis convened thought leaders to address “Prioritizing Equity in COVID-19 Vaccinations: Perspectives from States and Public-Private Partnerships,” in a two-part event. Watch the video here.

Join the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy’s upcoming webinar to hear experts in health care payment and delivery reform, value-based care implementation, and health equity discuss the specific actions CMMI can take to facilitate and sustain care transformation, particularly in the areas of primary care and population health, and address health disparities and achieve health equity goals. For more information or to register please click here.

Congratulations to Director Mark McClellan for being named one of Friends of Cancer Research’s 25 for 25, an honor awarded to science and advocacy leaders who have played a significant role in shaping innovation for patients in partnership with the organization. Read more here.

Congratulations to Michelle Franklin who was awarded the Duke REACH Equity Center Research, Education, Training (RET) Subcore Research Scholar award.

Digital Health Policy Fellow Christina Silcox discusses the Real-World Data (RWE) Alliance and the challenges of RWE trials in STATNews. Read the full article here.

Congratulations to Affiliated Faculty member Rushina Cholera who has been selected as a Scholar in the Duke Center for Advancement of Child Health (CAtCH) K-12 Program. Her area of focus will be on cross-sector approaches to addressing social drivers of health among children in under-resourced communities. Core Faculty member Janet Prvu Bettger will provide mentorship.

In coordination with American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Director Mark McClellan provided his perspective in a webinar called “The Future of Telehealth Policy: Accelerating the Transition to Virtual, Patient-Centered Care.” View the webinar here.

Congratulations to Research Associate Dave Anderson, who has been accepted into the Duke Department of Population Health Sciences’ PhD program. Dave will begin his degree program in the fall.

Congratulations to Policy Analyst Nick Fiore for completing his Master’s degree and graduating from Sanford School of Pubic Policy in a ceremony in early May.

Duke-Margolis welcomes new Core Faculty members Beth Shaz and Laura Richmond and new Affiliated Faculty team Katherine Swartz and David Hoffman. Welcome to Duke-Margolis!

John Bollinger is a new Policy Analyst who works with the Center’s Biomedical Innovation team on its Antimicrobial Resistance Initiatives. John comes to Duke-Margolis from Geneva, Switzerland, where he served as a Strategic Information and Evaluation Consultant for the Joint United National Programme on HIV/AIDS. Experienced in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, John is former research assistant at both Duke’s Health Humanities Lab and Duke’s Global Health Institute, where he conducted a research project on the epidemiology, risk profiles, and health outcomes of patients with carbapenem-resistant gram-negative bacterial infections in Sri Lanka. A Duke alumnus, John earned his Bachelor of Science in Biology, his Bachelor of Arts in Global Health, and his Masters of Science in Global Health all at Duke.