Current Duke-Margolis National Clinical Scholar and incoming Duke-Margolis Core Faculty member Rushina Cholera, and Andrea Thoumi, the Center’s Health Equity Policy Fellow, are two of the recipients of the 2020 Duke Presidential Award. They received university recognition for their work as part of the Latinx Advocacy Team & Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19 (LATIN-19) Team, a coalition of 58 volunteers from Duke faculty, staff, students, and community members and organizations working to reduce pandemic-related disparities facing the Latinx population in North Carolina. Duke-Margolis Scholars Keren Hendel, Cokie Young, and Lisvel Matos and Duke-Margolis Core Faculty Mina Silberberg, Corinna Sorenson, and Charlene Wong have active roles within LATIN-19 related to Bass Connections courses and research projects. The Presidential Awards recognize individuals and teams from the University and Health System who best demonstrate the values that define and shape Duke as an institution and are the highest honor given by Duke to staff and faculty members. Congratulations to entire Margolis team for your great work with LATIN-19!

HEALTH POLICY IN ACTION

Center Director Mark McClellan and Scott Gottlieb discuss, in a Wall Street Journal Op-ed, what re-opening may look like in the United States. Read the full commentary, “The Road to Reopening Won’t Be a Straight Line” here.

Center Director, Mark McClellan, joined five former FDA Commissioners in a letter to President Biden encouraging him to prioritize securing the FDA’s leadership team and to promote the importance of the independence of the agency. Read the full letter here.

Duke-Margolis Digital Health Policy Fellow, Christina Silcox, addressed how schools can reopen safely and how consistent messaging about a layered mitigation strategy can result in safer outcomes in schools and communities. Listen to the KRLD-Dallas interview here.

In partnership with National Governors Association, Duke-Margolis Health Equity Policy Fellow Andrea Thoumi and Visiting Senior Policy Fellow Hemi Tewarson co-authored “Prioritizing Equity in COVID-19 Vaccinations: Promising Practices from States to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities.” This brief highlights state level strategies which focus on access, community leadership and data. Read the brief here.

With funding provided by Rockefeller Foundation, Duke-Margolis team members Elaine Chhean, Katie Huber, Andrea Thoumi, Christina Silcox, David Anderson, and Mark McClellan co-authored “State and Local Testing Strategies for Responding to Covid-19 Outbreaks in Communities.” This resource aims to support state and local leaders in developing equitable testing strategies that will quickly identify, prevent, and respond to COVID-19 outbreaks in communities most impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, including communities of color. Read the full report here.

In partnership with the National Governors Association, Duke-Margolis team members Kirk Williamson and Hemi Tewarson co-authored “Increasing Utilization of COVID-19 Monoclonal Antibodies: Considerations and Promising Practices for Governors,” which presents ways governors can increase utilization of COVID-19 monoclonal antibody treatments and highlights promising practices in Alabama, Maryland, Michigan, and Texas. Read the full paper here.

Visiting Senior Policy Fellow Hemi Tewarson and Research Associate, Elaine Chhean, co-authored “Balancing Medicaid Budgets and Serving State Residents During a Pandemic” with faculty from Speire Healthcare Strategies and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices. This paper outlines key factors for governors and state leaders to consider when balancing state budgets and making difficult decisions about funding Medicaid during the COVID-19 crisis and subsequent economic downturn. Read the full paper here.

Senior Policy Analyst, Nicholas Harrison, Hemi Tewarson, and Visiting Policy Associate Katie Greene co-authored a brief addressing the effectiveness of existing and upcoming vaccines against emerging COVID-19 viral variants and how governors can address variants in the short and long term. Read “COVID-19 Vaccines and Emerging Viral Variants: Considerations for Governors” here.

Duke-Margolis Visiting Senior Policy Fellow, Hemi Tewarson addressed the states’ race to vaccinate their populations at the AHIP National Policy Conference, noting that “states still will need to partner with other organizations to get the vaccination job done as there will be increasing pressure to get shots into arms quickly and equitably as supplies of vaccines increase in coming weeks.” Read further coverage in SmartBrief and the American Journal of Managed Care. Hemi continues her discussion of the speed of vaccination in USA Today.

Duke-Margolis held a virtual town hall forum to discuss the findings of a project, funded by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, which sought to understand how, during the COVID-19 pandemic and before North Carolina’s Medicaid transformation, Medicaid coverage affects access to care and health outcomes for low income, underserved North Carolinians. Watch the event, Medicaid in North Carolina: COVID-19, Disparities, and Opportunities for Transformation, here. Learn more about this project here.

Duke-Margolis released the North Carolina Council on Health Care Coverage’s final guiding principles to increase health in the state. Council members prioritized increasing affordable and comprehensive coverage for as many uninsured North Carolinians as possible and recommended that any solutions should address supporting the business community, strengthening rural communities, reducing disparities, and expanding access to behavioral health services. Read coverage in Duke State Relations Newsletter, and The Progressive Pulse, as well as an interview with Council member Casey Cooper, CEO of the Cherokee Indian Hospital Authority.

Core Faculty member Krishna Udayakumar spoke with CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent Sanjay Gupta about the challenges of equitable global vaccine distribution on the podcast, Coronavirus: Fact vs Fiction. Click here to listen.

RESEARCH

Duke-Margolis Core Faculty Brystana Kaufman, Bradi Granger, Gillian Sanders, and Donald Taylor, co-authored a publication that examines how federal payment models for serious illness care present an opportunity to scale palliative care among patient groups most likely to benefit. Joining them on the paper were colleagues from the Duke Clinical Research Institute and Duke University School of Medicine, including Jie-Lena Sun, Daniel Mark, Haider Warraich, Mona Fiuzat, Karen Steinhauser, James Tulsky, Joseph Rogers, Christopher O'Connor, and Robert Mentz. Read “The Cost-Effectiveness of Palliative Care: Insights from the PAL-HF Trial” here.

Core Faculty Member Nathan Boucher, together with Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy’s Lena Cardoso, and Anna Gassman-Pines, co-authored a paper that explores the unique logistical and financial barriers that women in North Carolina face to access health care. Read the paper, “Insurance Barriers, Gendering, and Access: Interviews with Central North Carolinian Women about Their Health Care Experiences” here.

Duke-Margolis Visiting Senior Policy Fellow Hemi Tewarson and Research Associate Elaine Chhean co-authored, with faculty from National Governor’s Association Center for Best Practices, “A Case Study of Building Strong Brains Tennessee: An Initiative to Address Adverse Childhood Experiences and Become a Trauma-Informed State.” Read the case study here.

Center Research Associate Beena Bhuiyan Khan and Policy Analyst Becky Ray examine how innovations in medical technology lead to transformative therapies and the promise of significant improvements in healthcare. Read “Encouraging Post-Market Evidence Generation for Transformative Therapies” here.

Assistant Director of Education Sarah Dunn Phillips co-authored “The Evolving Landscape of Medical Device Regulation in East, Central, and Southern Africa” with Duke University affiliated colleagues Sarah Hubner, Caroline Maloney, Jenna Mueller, and Tamara Fitzgerald. Read the article here.

EDUCATION

Duke Margolis will engage its largest cohort of students to date in its Summer 2021 Margolis Internship Program. More than 300 undergraduate, graduate, and Ph.D students from Duke and other schools competed for the Center’s intern slots. The 33 interns selected will start their intern experience with a virtual kick-off on May 17^th. We look forward to introducing and welcoming our 2021 interns later this spring!

Senior Policy Fellow Susan Dentzer has been elected as board chair of Research!America, a nonprofit alliance that advocates for science, discovery, and innovation to achieve better health for all. “The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines, tests, and therapeutics is simply the latest illustration of the value and necessity of ongoing investment in research for health,” Susan noted. “Research!America has a long track-record of successful advocacy on behalf of this critical investment. I am honored to serve as board chair and to help move the cause forward.” Click here for more information.

Research Director Robert Saunders discussed the Duke-Margolis paper, “COVID-19 Offers Lessons on How to Prepare for the Next Public Health Disaster,” with Modern Healthcare. Read the article here.

Center Digital Health Policy Fellow Christina Silcox discussed how FDA regulates AI-enabled software at a private workshop held by the American Board of Family Medicine. Learn more here.

Montgomery Smith is a new Policy Analyst who will support work of the Center’s payment and delivery workstream, including an Arnold Foundation-funded project on coordinating care for dual-eligible beneficiaries in North Carolina. Montgomery is a graduate of Boston University with a Masters of Public Health in Health Policy and Law and is a former consultant with the Massachusetts Senior Action Council.

Michelle DelFavero is a new Research Associate with the Biomedical Innovation team where she will be working on the Center’s COVID-19 response as well as the Center’s growing state portfolio—including Medicaid policy— and the Center’s ongoing work with the Rockefeller Foundation. A clinical occupational therapist and cancer patient advocate, Michelle comes to Duke-Margolis from the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, where she served as a senior policy and legislative analyst.

Thomas Roades is a new Policy Analyst who will support work across the Center’s FDA and biomedical innovation team. Thomas comes to Duke-Margolis from the Health Finance Institute, where he served as an editorial associate. He is a former Public Policy Clerk for The Daschle Group, and a research assistant for University of Virginia‘s Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, where he also earned his Master’s in Public Policy.