Health Equity
Duke-Margolis aims to ensure that its health policy research and leadership contribute significantly to dismantling health inequities and improving health and health care through the following ways:
Drivers of health: Address the underlying causes of poor health or poor health outcomes through payment flexibilities and other policies. Many areas of the country have limited access to services that address social drivers, including rural areas and areas with concentrated poverty.
Supporting the health care safety net: Safety net organizations, such as community health centers and safety net hospitals, provide health care to people who otherwise would be unable to access health care. Duke-Margolis research has identified payment and care delivery reforms that expand and improve health care provided to medically and socially underserved communities.
Population and community health: In order for health care providers to understand and manage the health of their community and populations of people, they need to identify the different health needs of different populations; measure disparities or differences in health status between populations; engage people to understand their health needs and health care experiences; remove barriers to access; and ensure health care is delivered in a way that meets people’s needs, goals, and context.
Evidence: Therapies and health care care models often work differently for different groups and subgroups of people (e.g., by age groups like pediatric, by region like rural and urban, if people have other concurrent conditions). Therefore, we need good representative evidence to track what therapies are safe and effective for different people under different circumstances. Ideally, evidence should draw broadly from people and communities to understand health care on the front lines. This evidence is important so agencies can make sure that products and care approaches are safe and effective for all people.
Projects Relating to Health Equity
Improving Health and Health Care for All
and Responding to COVID-19
Across the Nation
Duke-Margolis is collaborating with local, state, and national leaders to identify and share best practices for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and therapeutics.
Around the World
Duke-Margolis Core Faculty members and researchers are focused on mitigating disruptions in primary care and other essential services, and increasing access to COVID-19 vaccines and therapeutics in low- and middle-income countries. Read more about the global efforts led by Duke-Margolis, Center for Policy Impact in Global Health, Global Health Innovation Center, and Duke Global Health Institute here.
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Community Engagement in COVID-19 Policy Responses
COVID-19 GAP: The Global Accountability Platform
COVID-19 Health Equity Learning Network
Supporting Equitable COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution, Access, and Uptake
Healthcare Transformation
Duke-Margolis is developing evidence for improving health care delivery and payment strategies. Key topic areas include: alternative payment models to improve health care for all, centering optimization in Medicaid transformation, data systems and measurement to allow for analysis, social drivers of health to be responsive to population health needs, and public health modernization.
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Health Care Transformation to Advance Health Equity
Timely Guidance on Payment and Coverage Reform
Biomedical Innovation
Duke-Margolis is supporting development, use, and access of medical products for patients that need them. Key health topics include: clinical trial participation and representation, population health payment models for medical products, representation in development of AI algorithms, and RWE generation on long-term product safety and efficacy in multiple populations.
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Advancing Clinical Trials at the Point of Care (ACT@POC)
Point-of-Care Clinical Trials: Integrating Research and Care Delivery
Understanding Bias and Fairness in AI-enabled Healthcare Software
Global Health
Duke-Margolis is focused on aligning global health financing, care delivery, and access to services and medical products globally through policy reform. Key health topics include: global pandemic preparedness and response, global health financing for value, and responding to syndemics (e.g., non-communicable diseases, climate change).
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COVID-19 GAP: The Global Accountability Platform
Women-Inspired Strategies for Healthcare
Addressing Health Care for All Through Scholarship
Duke-Margolis is equipping future health leaders with the tools and knowledge to assess and address systemic, root causes of health inequity; apply health principles to research, program and policy design; and develop policies that advance improved health care for all. Key topics include: applying health care improvement principles to research design, policy development, and advocacy to advance evidence-based health policy, and building interpersonal and technical skills to address systemic root causes of health disparities.
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Duke-Margolis Bass Connections Projects
Duke-Margolis Bass Connections COVID-19 Pop-Up Theme
Duke-Margolis Faculty & Research Team
Gary Bennett, PhD
Bishop-McDermott Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Margolis Core Faculty
Hayden Bosworth, PhD
Professor in Population Health Sciences
Margolis Affiliated Faculty
Nathan Boucher, DrPH
Faculty Director, Health Policy Undergraduate Certificate
Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Associate Research Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Margolis Core Faculty
Tyson Brown, PhD
Faculty Executive Committee
WLF Associate Professor of Sociology
Margolis Core Faculty
Margolis Executive Core Faculty
Rushina Cholera, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics and Population Health Sciences
Medical Instructor in the Department of Pediatrics
Margolis Core Faculty
Lesley Curtis, PhD
Chair and Professor, Department of Population Health Sciences
Margolis Executive Core Faculty
Michelle Franklin, PhD
Margolis Core Faculty
Katie Huber, MPH
Policy Research Associate
Monica Lemmon, MD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Population Health Sciences
Margolis Core Faculty
Herbert Kim Lyerly, MD
George Barth Geller Distinguished Professor of Surgery
Margolis Core Faculty
Jasmine Masand, (MPP '21)
Anti-Racism and Equity Committee Member
Mark McClellan, MD, PhD
Director of the Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy
Robert J. Margolis, MD, Professor of Business, Medicine and Policy
Margolis Executive Core Faculty
Jacqueline Nikpour, (PhD '21)
Anti-Racism and Equity Committee Member
Steven Patierno, PhD
Professor of Medicine, Community & Family Medicine, Pharmacology and Cancer Biology
Margolis Core Faculty
Nimmi Ramanujam, PhD
Robert W. Carr, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Biomedical Engineering
Margolis Core Faculty
Barak Richman, PhD
Edgar P. and Elizabeth C. Bartlett Professor of Law
Barak Richman, PhD
Edgar P. and Elizabeth C. Bartlett Professor of Law
Gillian Sanders Schmidler, PhD
Deputy Director, Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy
Professor of Population Health Sciences, School of Medicine
Margolis Executive Core Faculty
Devdutta Sangvai, MD, MBA
Faculty Director of the Margolis Summer Experience
Margolis Core Faculty
Margolis Executive Core Faculty
Professor, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry
Duke SOM Professor, Program in Education
Robert Saunders, PhD
Senior Research Director, Health Care Transformation
Adjunct Associate Professor
Executive Team Member
Margolis Core Faculty
Mina Silberberg, PhD
Associate Professor in Family Medicine and Community Health
Margolis Core Faculty
Christina Silcox, PhD
Research Director, Digital Health
Adjunct Assistant Professor
Senior Team Member
Margolis Core Faculty
Corinna Sorenson, PhD, MHSA, MPH
Faculty Director of Undergraduate and Graduate Studies
Senior Advisor and Founding Director, Margolis Scholars Program
Assistant Professor in Population Health Sciences and Public Policy
Margolis Core Faculty
Donald H. Taylor, PhD, MPP
Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Peter Ubel, MD
Madge and Dennis T. McLawhorn University Professor
Margolis Core Faculty
Krishna Udayakumar, MD, MBA
Director of Post-Graduate Education Initiatives, Margolis Center
Associate Professor of Global Health and Medicine
Margolis Executive Core Faculty
Courtney Van Houtven, PhD
Professor in Population Health Sciences
Margolis Core Faculty
Michael (Buz) Waitzkin, JD
Faculty Director of Education Special Projects
Bass Connections COVID-19 Theme Faculty Lead
Margolis Core Faculty
Deputy Director of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
Frank Wharam
Margolis Core Faculty
Professor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine
Rebecca Whitaker, PhD, MSPH
Research Director, North Carolina Health Care Transformation
Core Faculty Member
Senior Team Member
Charlene Wong, MD, MSHP
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Margolis Core Faculty
Gavin Yamey, MD, MPH
Hymowitz Professor of the Practice of Global Health, Duke Global Health Institute
Margolis Core Faculty
Press Release May 23, 2023
Community Health Workers Key to Advancing Health Equity
Community health workers (CHWs) are frontline public health workers who are trusted members of...
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News Update September 1, 2022
Trending Topic
21st Century Public Health and Population Health
Duke-Margolis is developing a major, cross-cutting initiative to address—and inform—the future of…
