Health Policy Update: November 2023 |
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Reducing Viral Transmission and Maximizing Population-Level Benefit
Duke-Margolis published a white paper, “Reducing the Burden of Respiratory Viral Infections: A Policy Framework to Accelerate Biomedical Innovation to Benefit Population Health,” to outline a shared, systematic framework for achieving individual and population-level benefits to use medical products to reduce respiratory virus transmission. The framework is connected to actionable regulatory, coverage, and payment policy reforms for diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics. These policy reforms strive to facilitate the development, regulatory review, and reimbursement of products, while promoting continued investment in the respiratory virus space.
The white paper was published to accompany a recent event that discussed the framework—read more here.
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Investing in Global Primary Care
Core Faculty members Gavin Yamey and Osondu Ogbuoji and Duke-Margolis Area Lead for Community Health and Equity Andrea Thoumi co-authored a paper, “Rethinking how development assistance for health can catalyze progress on primary health care,” in The Lancet. Though many countries have progressed on primary health care thanks to donor financing, the investments have remained small-scale. This paper identified a set of concrete, evidence-based investments to further strengthen primary health care and control HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and vaccine-preventable illnesses. Read more here.
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Advancing Home-Based Care in Medicare Advantage
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Improving Health Equity Through the Community
Health Equity Policy & Primary Care Fellow Gabriela Plasencia, former Policy Analyst Kamaria Kaalund, and Andrea Thoumi co-authored a paper in Health Equity: “Systemic Racism Affecting Latinx Population Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond: Perspectives of Latinx Community Health Workers and Community-Based Organization Leaders.” The authors gathered community perspectives to identify the forms of systemic racism Latinx communities in North Carolina experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic and noted that community-informed policy recommendations can help improve health equity. Read more here.
Duke-Margolis researchers, faculty, and former students Andrea Thoumi, Gabriela Plasencia, Kamaria Kaalund, Rushina Cholera, Amy Labrador, Farrah Madanay, and Nikhil Chaudhry co-authored a paper in Frontiers: “Promoting Latinx health equity through community-engaged policy and practice reforms in North Carolina.” The authors studied some of the underlying barriers to address health inequities in communities and found that community interventions and policy interventions often had differing priorities. Read their analysis here.
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Next Steps for the North Carolina State Transformation Collaborative
As the neutral convener for the NC State Transformation Collaborative (NC STC), Duke-Margolis has held a series of working meetings that concluded with consensus on four priority areas: aligning quality measurement, strengthening coordinated and accountable primary care, enhancing health equity data, and improving data sharing. Duke-Margolis convened strategic and technical leaders from North Carolina health systems, Medicaid and commercial payers, provider groups, and the NC Department of Health and Human Services to discuss the NC STC Alignment Proposal, a set of preliminary action steps to accelerate the adoption of advanced primary care and population-based models in North Carolina. To keep up-to-date with the work of the NC STC, including the upcoming public meeting in May 2024, subscribe to the newsletter here.
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Self-Monitoring to Improve Health Equity in Hypertension
Core Faculty member Bradi Granger and former students Anna Tharakan, Devan Desai, and Rohan Gupta co-authored “Applying the RE-AIM framework to evaluate an educational model to ‘close the gap’ and improve health equity in uncontrolled hypertension,” a paper published in Patient Education and Counseling. The researchers applied the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance (RE-AIM) framework to a patient self-monitoring intervention for severe hypertension among Black individuals, and the paper highlighted the health policy implications for quality measures with patient-reported self-monitoring. This paper built on work from the Health Policy & Innovation Bass Connections Team, Closing the Gap on Health Disparity and Outcomes in Hypertension. Read more here.
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Healthy Opportunities Pilots Program
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Experiential Learning in Bass Connections
This Bass Connections team is led by Research Director Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup, Policy Research Assistant Maryam Nafie, Core Faculty member Frank Sloan, and Sandra Yankah. The students will present their work at the Duke Health Data Science Poster Showcase on December 8—learn more here.
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Improving the Rare Disease Clinical Trial Space
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ACT@POC
A report from the Reagan-Udall Foundation, “Enhancing Post-Market Evidence Generation for Medical Products,” cited work from the Advancing Clinical Trials at the Point of Care (ACT@POC) coalition. The report highlighted the gaps in evidence for medical products and proposed solutions to facilitate evidence generation in the post-market setting. Read more here.
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Bridging a Care Gap: Policy Opportunities for Improving Access to Home-Based Primary Care for Rural Populations
December 5, 2023
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM ET
Though home-based primary care can help address health needs and advance health equity, a significant gap between the supply and demand of services remains. This webinar will discuss unique challenges of implementing home-based primary care in rural areas, care delivery considerations for supporting rural home-based primary care, and policy opportunities to support rural home-based primary care providers and the communities they serve.
Learn more and register here.
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Advancing Hepatitis C Elimination: A Coordinated National Approach
December 5, 2023
12:30–4:00 PM ET
Chronic hepatitis C causes significant morbidity and mortality and is a leading cause of liver cancer and liver transplantation in the United States, despite the availability of curative therapies. The Administration recently proposed a national hepatitis C elimination program. To support these broader efforts, Duke-Margolis has developed an evidence-based, implementation pathway for a national elimination program that combines strategies for greater access to hepatitis C therapeutics with provider training, disease detection and surveillance, and coordinated care management. Duke-Margolis will be hosting a hybrid conference to share findings from this work.
Learn more and register here.
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Improving Regulatory Practices to Sustain Antibiotic Innovation
December 12, 2023
1:00 – 2:30 PM ET
Antibiotic-resistant infections and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) severely threaten global public health and caused an estimated 1.2 million deaths in 2019. Global governments agree that novel antibiotics are an essential defense against resistant infections but their development faces scientific, regulatory, and financial hurdles.
During this webinar, attendees will learn how the regulatory process impacts investment in antibiotic development and commercialization. Expert speakers will discuss strategies to improve clinical trials, the impact of international regulatory harmonization, and the potential of real-world evidence to augment the regulatory review and clinical success of novel antibiotics.
Learn more and register here.
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Emerging CMMI Models: Aligning to Reduce Burden & Achieve Person-Centered Care in 2024
December 13, 2023
2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) officials and health care and health policy experts will come together to discuss what the new and revised CMS Innovation Center (CMMI) models mean for patients and providers. Attendees will hear updates from CMMI on the CMS vision for accountable care, learn how emerging models are promoting alignment, growth, and equity through common design elements, and discover how directional alignment among CMMI models can promote person-centered care and reduced burden for accountable providers.
Learn more and register here.
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Advancing the Development of Therapeutics Through Rare Disease Patient Community Engagement
December 14, 2023
12:00 – 5:00 PM ET
Rare diseases and conditions collectively impact an estimated 30 million people in the United States, and significant unmet treatment needs remain. This public meeting will discuss approaches and opportunities for engaging patients, patient groups, rare disease or condition experts, and experts on small population studies during the drug development process for rare diseases. The meeting will focus on how to best understand patients’ experiences living with a rare disease and how to incorporate those experiences and priorities throughout the drug development process. This focus includes understanding patient perspectives on the burden of their condition and any existing treatment options, as well as how their current health status and risk of disease progression may impact willingness to accept risks from treatment side effects.
Learn more and register here.
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15th Annual Sentinel Initiative Public Workshop
This workshop provided an opportunity for attendees to discuss recent achievements and developments in the Sentinel Initiative. Participants also heard from Sentinel Initiative leadership on a range of key issues, including recent studies and applications of Sentinel to protect and promote public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, speakers considered key progress made to fulfill Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) commitments, advance innovation within Sentinel, and to expand and extend important capabilities of the data network.
Learn more and watch the recording here.
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Reimagining our Shared Approach to Fall Respiratory Virus Seasons: New Strategies for Transmission Reduction and Population-Level Benefit
Duke-Margolis developed a comprehensive framework for incorporating population benefits of medical products into regulatory and reimbursement processes. The public workshop focused on this new, shared strategic direction for addressing the burden presented by respiratory viruses, in the context of the ongoing fall virus season. The workshop solicited feedback on the population-level framework and policy steps, along with additional considerations for implementation of transmission reduction at a national scale. Strategic discussions among health policy experts, public health officials, and federal government and private sector leaders presented an opportunity for the United States to lead globally on a coordinated response to respiratory viruses.
Learn more and watch the recording here.
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Advancing the Duke-Margolis Education Mission
Duke-Margolis hosted an Open House during Duke’s Family Weekend to increase awareness of our educational programs. Students, parents, and others visited the Durham office to meet Duke-Margolis leadership, faculty, and staff, and to learn more about health policy and the academic opportunities that Duke-Margolis offers. We were thrilled to have many students engage with us about their interest in health policy research.
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Core Faculty member Lesley Curtis received the American Heart Association’s Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research (QCOR) Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award. Lesley was selected for her significant contributions to research dedicated to the improvement of cardiovascular care. In addition to being a member of QCOR, Lesley directs the Center for Pragmatic Health Systems Research at the Duke Clinical Research Institute and leads the Distributed Research Network Operations Center for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s National Clinical Research Network. She works with health systems and patient networks to develop a harmonized data infrastructure for robust observational and interventional research. Congratulations, Lesley!
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Core Faculty member Krishna Udakayumar co-authored a paper in BMJ Global Health, “Scaling malaria interventions: bottlenecks to malaria elimination,” to share challenges along the end-to-end scale-up pathway of malaria interventions. The paper offers recommendations for efforts to reduce malaria, including coordination among stakeholders and using financial incentives to encourage research and development for innovative malaria products. Read more here.
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Senior Research Director Rob Saunders will speak at the Second National Primary Care Transformation Summit, produced by Global Health Care, LLC, as part of their Heritage Value-Based Care conference series. Hear from Rob on December 6 during the mini summit, “The Imperative to Scale Home-Based Primary Care for Patients with Complex Care,” where he will speak about the growing demand for home-based primary care services and the care gap that remains. Duke-Margolis’ project, Leveraging Policy Reforms to Scale Home-Based Primary Care, works to address this care gap. Learn more about the event here.
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WebMD quoted Core Faculty member David Muhlestein in the article, “’Food as Medicine’ Concept Starts to Catch On: What to Know.” The article highlighted the widespread issue of diet-related diseases in the United States and how many people lack access to healthy food. Certain insurers have begun to provide medically tailored meals and grocery allowances to some of their members as part of the “food as medicine” movement, which David noted as a promising way to reduce medical spend via non-medical interventions. Read more here.
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Former Scholar Elaijah Lapay (’24) presented at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists, where he won a Presentation Award within the Social and Behavioral Sciences and Public Health discipline. His winning presentation featured his project, “Arraigados Juntos: Lessons Learned from a Cross-Sectoral Food as Medicine Pilot,” which studied the impact of a produce delivery and nutrition education intervention on hypertensive Black and Latinx members of the Durham, North Carolina community. Learn more about the event here.
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Core Faculty member Barak Richman co-authored an op-ed in the News & Observer: “Duke Law researchers: NC hospitals use deceit to sue patients, take their homes.” Building on his research published by Duke Law, Barak brought attention to how certain North Carolina hospital systems continue to aggressively pursue medical debt collection from patients and place liens on their homes. Read the full story here.
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Opportunities at Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy |
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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.
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