Health Policy Update: October 2023 |
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Duke-Margolis Welcomes New Core Faculty Members |
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Core Faculty are essential to our research and educational efforts. They represent the interdisciplinary Center's approach of engaging skills and knowledge from schools and units across Duke to address leading health policy challenges facing the state, the nation, and the world. This month, we welcome two new members: |
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Tyson Brown, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Duke University, where he holds the W.L.F. endowed chair. His research examines the who, when, and how questions regarding racial inequities in wealth and health. Tyson is investigating macro-level factors and psychosocial mechanisms that underlie social inequalities in health.
A former board member of the Population Association of America as well as on the editorial boards of top journals such as Social Forces, Demography, Social Psychology Quarterly, and the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Tyson founded Duke’s Writing and Research Productivity Group, which aims to promote excellence in scholarship and support Black faculty by creating protected writing time and a space that enhances faculty inclusion.
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Eric S. Richardson, PhD, is a Professor of the Practice in Biomedical Engineering at Duke University and the Founding Director of Duke Design Health. His research and teaching focus on medical device design and manufacturing in global and underserved markets. He emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches and academic-industry collaborations. In 2018, Dr. Richardson transitioned to Duke from Rice University, where he was the Founding Director of the Global Medical Innovation Program that develops and implements medical technology in emerging markets. Prior to Rice, he was a Principal R&D Engineer at Medtronic in California, where he developed transcatheter heart valves that currently serve over 500,000 patients worldwide.
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"We Lead Duke Health"
In a new model, Duke School of Medicine Dean and now Duke Health Executive Vice President Mary Klotman and Craig Albanese, CEO of Duke Health, together are responsible for leading the health system. “By integrating the clinical, academic research, and community missions, we create a unified system in which each part enhances each other,” they state in a newly released video. Duke-Margolis and the Duke Global Health Institute are key parts of this vision, advancing Duke Health’s profound influence, not only within the institution but also on the global stage. Watch the video here.
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Dean Klotman and Dr. Albanese will meet with the Duke-Margolis Advisory Board at its November meeting in their new roles and join a discussion of the Center’s work to advance North Carolina health care transformation.
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Incentives for Novel Antibiotic Development
Duke-Margolis published a white paper, “Bolstering Public Health Preparedness by Investing in Post-Market Incentives for Novel Antibiotics,” to describe opportunities for policymakers to establish pull incentives for novel antibiotics that advance preparedness and bioindustrial base. As drug-resistant infections and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) threaten global public health, access to innovative, novel antibiotics is critical to prepare for future health emergencies.
Policymakers can support pharmaceutical manufacturing and supply chains, surveillance systems, post-market evidence development infrastructure, and diagnostic capabilities in a manner that reduces post-market costs for the smaller novel antibiotic developers who conduct the majority of current antibiotic research and development.
Read the white paper here.
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Telehealth and Health Equity Uptake in North Carolina
Duke-Margolis researchers, scholars, students, Rebecca Whitaker, Yolande Pokam Tchuisseu, Samantha Repka, Karina Vasudeva, and Nadia Bey co-authored, “Evaluating Telehealth Uptake Among North Carolina Medicaid Beneficiaries with Musculoskeletal Conditions: Insights from the COVID-19 Pandemic” in Medical Care. The authors explore factors associated with telehealth utilization and whether telehealth availability helped mitigate disparities in access to care among Medicaid beneficiaries with musculoskeletal conditions. This research is tied to an ongoing Duke-Margolis project, Exploring Equitable Access to Care and Outcomes Using Telehealth in the Transition to Medicaid Managed Care, which is funded by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust. Read the article here.
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Advancing Medicare Accountable Care Organizations
Duke-Margolis researchers Sherrie Wang, Sara Debab, David Muhlestein, Frank McStay, Will Bleser, Mark McClellan, and Rob Saunders co-authored an article in Health Affairs Forefront: “Medicare Accountable Care Organizations In 2022: Renewed Growth And Improved Savings Show Small Rebound From The COVID-19 Pandemic.” They analyzed the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) 2022 performance results for the Medicare Shared Savings Program (MSSP) and highlight opportunities to leverage and improve upon the MSSP program to make progress towards the CMS goals to deliver accountable care for all beneficiaries by 2030. Read their analysis here.
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Shared Learning in Data Privacy and Security
Duke-Margolis released a meeting summary of expert workshop, “Emerging Best Practices and Future Directions in Data Privacy and Security.” This event facilitated the shared learning of practices that can address or mitigate risks that may arise from personal health information used in or generated from emergent technologies and methodologies in clinical research. Bringing together a range of stakeholders, including industry representatives, clinical researchers, patient voices, and data privacy and security experts, the participants discussed and assessed existing tools and practices that may be applied to new and emerging data privacy and security challenges arising in the clinical research space. Stakeholders also addressed the implementation of best practices and explored potential paths forward that could meet data privacy needs while preserving data utility. Read the meeting summary here.
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Subscribe for Project Updates
Interested in staying up-to-date on the latest news with some of our projects? New project-specific newsletters share activities and events related to their work. Follow the links below to subscribe:
Keep up-to-date on Consortium work products and events, Consortium members’ ongoing efforts to address drug shortages and strengthen the drug supply chain, and related events and news. The Drug Supply Resilience and Advanced Manufacturing Consortium aims to identify policy solutions that ultimately reduce the frequency and severity of drug shortages. Manufacturing quality issues, natural disasters, bioterrorism, geopolitical issues, and other supply and demand shocks all pose threats to U.S. patients in need of life-saving, essential drugs. Subscribe here.
Learn more about Duke-Margolis project activities, upcoming events, and emerging policy reforms relate to home-based primary care or home-based care more broadly. The Home-Based Primary Care Newsletter is part of a project, supported by The John A. Hartford Foundation, to advance home-based primary care and Age-Friendly Health Systems. While primary care has gradually shifted outside of traditional clinical settings, the COVID-19 pandemic emphasized the need to meet people where they are to increase access for older adults and those with complex health and social needs who struggle to access care in traditional settings. Subscribe here.
Read updates, achievements, and developments related to the North Carolina State Transformation Collaborative (NC STC) as well as locally-driven health care transformation efforts that prioritize state and community needs. The NC STC is a public-private initiative that provides a unique opportunity to improve population health, enhance the patient experience, reduce health care costs, and decrease administrative demands on health care providers, while simultaneously advancing health equity. Subscribe here.
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Real-World Evidence
The Duke-Margolis Real-World Evidence team issued three papers and held a convening on “The State of Real-World Evidence.” The papers and the public meeting discussion addressed the role of master protocols for RWE, evaluating real-world efficacy in patient subgroups, and the generation of more practically relevant evidence by leveraging RWD to advance learning health systems. The Evidence Base covered part of this work. Read the article here.
Read the RWE papers:
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Future of Health Summit 2023
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15th Annual Sentinel Initiative Public Workshop
November 8, 2023
9:00 AM – 5:00 PM ET
This workshop is hosted under a cooperative agreement with the Food and Drug Administration and will provide an opportunity for attendees to discuss recent achievements and developments in the Sentinel Initiative. Participants also will hear 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, sessions will consider 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 register here.
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Reimagining our Shared Approach to Fall Respiratory Virus Seasons: New Strategies for Transmission Reduction and Population-Level Benefit
November 14, 2023
12:30 – 4:30 PM ET
Duke-Margolis has developed a comprehensive framework for incorporating population benefits of medical products into regulatory and reimbursement processes, with policy steps to enact the framework for combating the spread of respiratory viruses through transmission reduction. The public workshop will focus on this new, shared strategic direction for addressing the burden presented by respiratory viruses, in the context of the ongoing fall season. The aim of this workshop is to solicit 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 present an opportunity for the U.S. to lead globally on a coordinated response to respiratory viruses.
Learn more and register 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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Medicare Accountable Care in 2030 | The Pathway to 100%
CMS has set a bold vision to transition all Traditional Medicare beneficiaries into accountable care relationships by 2030. Achieving this goal requires strategic coordination and collaboration across stakeholders to create transformational change in providing high-quality, whole-person care to all Medicare beneficiaries. In partnership with West Health, Duke-Margolis brought together CMS leadership, experts in public health and academic medicine, and innovators from the private sector to discuss a path forward in achieving the CMS strategic vision.
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Join Our Health Policy Open House
Duke-Margolis will host an Open House for Duke’s Family Weekend on Friday, November 3rd. This event is an opportunity for parents to meet the educators and mentors who are working with Duke students who are learning about and exploring careers in health policy. Join us at our office at the JB Duke Hotel and hear more about how the Center’s research and educational initiatives engage students across campus in health policy.
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Advancing the Duke-Margolis Education Mission
Duke-Margolis hosted two events this month to increase awareness of our educational programs. The Majors Fair showcased the Undergraduate Health Policy Certificate and answered questions about the academic pathway and potential career advantages. At the Duke Summer Experience Fair, we highlighted the Margolis Summer Experience to recruit new students for our internship program. Both the certificate and the internship program are designed to help cultivate the next generation of health policy leaders, and we were thrilled to see many students engage with us about their interest in pursuing health policy research.
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Margolis Scholar Jack Pitsor (MPP ’24) was selected as a David A. Winston Health Policy Scholar. The scholarship is awarded to students who demonstrate their potential as health policy professionals to help them pursue their education. As part of the scholarship, Jack attended a health policy symposium in Washington, D.C., to learn how to become part of the health policymaking process. Speakers included leading health policy professionals, federal agencies, media, and members of the private sector to give the Scholars a wide variety of perspectives. Congratulations, Jack!
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Assistant Research Director Frank McStay co-authored an article in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine: “Use of Telehealth Early and Late in the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency: Policy Implications for Improving Health Equity.” The article explores the equity implications for telemedicine access during the early and late months of the COVID-19 pandemic, comparing use of phone or video primary care visits in commercially-insured practices and those in the uninsured clinics. Read more here.
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Core Faculty member Shelby Reed received the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcome (ISPOR)’s Marilyn Dix Smith Leadership Award for her “consistent, broad, and meaningful direction to the Society in a leadership role.” Shelby has been an ISPOR member for over 20 years and her research often focuses on economic and health outcome evaluations of pharmaceuticals and health care services. Congratulations, Shelby!
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Mark McClellan welcomed Morgan Hanger as the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI)’s new Executive Director. “CTTI has been at the center of advancing clinical trial transformation through public-private collaboration, and that leadership will continue under Morgan Hanger,” he said in CTTI’s announcement. Read more here.
Mark was a speaker at the Health Care Payment Learning & Action Network’s 2023 Summit, where he discussed accountable care and how it may be implemented in modern health care systems. His presentation fed into the overall theme of the event as speakers explored ways to move from planning to operationalizing accountable care. Learn more here.
USA Today quoted Mark in the article, “The steep cost of Type 2: When diabetes dragged her down, she chose to fight.” He highlights the challenge of delivering care for people with chronic diseases such as diabetes. Read more here.
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Research Director Rachele Hendricks-Sturrup was part of the Program Committee for the Drug Information Association (DIA)’s Real-World Evidence Conference and chaired a session on “Special Populations’ Perspectives on RWD and RWE.” The discussion centered around how real-world data can be used to generate insights about social determinants of health and monitor outcomes in underrepresented populations. Learn more here.
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Core Faculty member David Ridley co-authored an article in the Journal of Health Economics: “Consequences of a Shortage and Rationing: Evidence from a Pediatric Vaccine.” The article studies a Haemophilus influenzae type B vaccine shortage from years ago to guide current vaccine shortage management. While the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s response to this shortage avoided a rise in cases and deaths, indirect costs remained, such as patients missing other vaccines, adding extra visits, and switching providers. Read the article here.
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Core Faculty member Nathan Boucher co-authored a report, “A Place to Thrive: Creating Opportunities to Age Well in North Carolina,” to share findings from the North Carolina Institute of Medicine’s Task Force on Healthy Aging. This work was funded by The Duke Endowment, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services Division of Aging and Adult Services and Division of Public Health, and AARP North Carolina to explore policy and process strategies for healthy aging in North Carolina. In particular, the task force examined four key areas to improve: fall prevention, mobility, nutrition, and social connections. Read their recommendations here.
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Research Director Christina Silcox spoke at Causaly Connect, a conference exploring AI applications in drug development. During her talk, Christina shared the latest policies, initiatives, and frameworks focused on the use of AI in health and medical product development. Learn more here.
Christina also spoke at the National Academy of Medicine’s Leadership Consortium meeting to improve stakeholder understanding of the nature and implications of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI. Her session covered the potential risks that LLMs and generative AI pose to health equity and safety. Learn more here.
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National Clinician Scholar Carri Polick co-authored an op-ed in MedPage Today, “Clarifying the ‘Duty to Warn’ in North Carolina,” to highlight the ambiguity in clinicians’ Tarasoff duties in North Carolina. Mental health clinicians who believe their patient may be a danger to themselves or others have a duty to break confidentiality and warn the proper authorities, but North Carolina is one of four states that does not clearly support these Tarasoff duties, leaving clinicians at legal risk. The authors urge North Carolina policymakers to define clinicians’ reporting duties in specific circumstances and to protect them from liability. Read more here.
The National Clinician Scholar Program (NCSP) is organized by the Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute and trains clinicians to drive policy-relevant research and partnerships to improve health and health care. Duke-Margolis provides health policy research opportunities to interested Scholars.
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Health Equity Policy & Primary Care Fellow Gabriela Plasencia spoke at the NCSP’s 2023 Annual Meeting on “Community-Informed Systems Mapping to Reimagine Latinx Population Health.” The meeting is designed to bring together NCSP Scholars, alumni, faculty, and staff to share the latest developments in the program as well as current work. Learn more here.
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NC Health News quoted Core Faculty member Barak Richman in the article, “Throwing a Financial Lifeline to Rural NC Health Care Providers,” where he highlights a key drawback to NC Care, a collaboration between UNC Health and East Carolina University to provide primary care in rural areas. Read more here.
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Rachel Bonesteel is a Senior Policy Analyst within the Health Care Transformation Team. She supports the federal health policy projects related to the West Health portfolio of work, including risk adjustment and specialty payment reform, and the Health Care Payment Learning and Action Network. Rachel is a graduate from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine/London School of Economics and Political Science, where she earned a Master of Science in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing. She also earned her Bachelor’s degree in Health Policy and Management from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, Rachel was a Policy Manager at United States of Care and a Health Policy Specialist at the Children’s Hospital Association, where she worked on a variety of federal and state policy issues including affordability in the private market, Medicaid, maternal and child health, behavioral health, and Medicare regulations.
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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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