Health Equity and Responding to COVID-19

Across the Nation

Duke-Margolis is collaborating with state and national leaders to identify and share best practices for the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, testing, and therapeutics.

• Read more about the COVID-19 Health Equity Learning Network, which is facilitating shared learning among governor-appointed health equity COVID-19 task force leaders in their efforts to accelerate progress toward health equity.
• Read more about Informing North Carolina’s COVID-19 Pandemic Response: Projected Service Needs of Medicaid Beneficiaries

Duke-Margolis team members are actively involved in the following programs:

• Read more about the Rapid Acceleration of Diagnostics-Underserved Populations (RADx-UP) Coordinating Center, co-led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute and UNC’s Center for Health Equity Research
• Read more about the Latinx Advocacy Team & Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19(LATIN-19), a recipient of the 2020 Duke Presidential Awards

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.

Addressing Health Equity 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 equity principles to research, program and policy design; and develop policies that advance health equity.

Read more about health equity education programming

Health Policy Courses

Duke-Margolis Bass Connections Projects

Duke-Margolis Bass Connections COVID-19 Pop-Up Theme

Anti-Racism and Health Equity Committee

Duke-Margolis established the Anti-Racism and Equity Committee (AREC) following George Floyd’s 2020 death from police brutality, We recognize as a Center the systemic racism and racial and ethnic health inequities present both nationally and locally. We are taking steps to be a workplace, and a research and education institution that embeds the values of anti-racism and equity in our research and academic programming. The Committee identified four high-level aims for the Center and its work:

• Research Practices and Priorities
• Academic Programming and Education
• Staffing, Recruitment, and Retention
• Communications and Operations

Read more about the ARE Committee here.

Margolis Resources

Publications

COVID-19 Vaccination and Testing

• Bridging the Health Equity Gap: Strategies to Create an Equitable Health System for Latinx Communities (Health Affairs Blog)
• Championing Health Equity: Experiences from State COVID-19 Health Equity Task Forces
• Achieving Progress Toward Health Equity Using Race and Ethnicity Data: State Strategies and Lessons Learned
• Hyperlocal COVID-19 Testing and Vaccination Strategies to Reach Communities with Low Vaccine Uptake
• Partnering with Tribal Nations for COVID-19 Vaccinations: A Case Study of Alaska
• A Case Study of the Virginia COVID-19 Equity Leadership Task Force and Health Equity Working Group
• Addressing Early Challenges in COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution: State Strategies to Achieve Efficiency and Equity
• Building Public-Private Partnerships to Support Efficient and Equitable COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution, Access, and Uptake
• Prioritizing Equity in COVID-19 Vaccinations: Promising Practices from States to Reduce Racial and Ethnic Disparities
• State and Local Testing Strategies for Responding to COVID-19 Outbreaks in Communities
• Reducing Health Inequities in Michigan: A Case Study of The Coronavirus Racial Disparities Task Force
• Supporting an Equitable Distribution of COVID-19 Vaccines: Key Themes, Strategies and Challenges Across State and Territorial COVID-19 Vaccination Plans

COVID-19 and Global Health

• Resources available in Global COVID-19 Response
• COVID-19 has threatened to overwhelm health systems worldwide. What lessons can we learn about how to achieve ‘good health and well-being for all’? (UNA-UK)
• The Coronavirus is a siren for the health-related Sustainable Development Goals (Brookings Future Development)
• COVID-19: Maintaining essential rehabilitation services across the care continuum (BMJ Global Health)

Value-Based Care and Payment Reform

• Association of Unemployment with Medicaid Enrollment by Social Vulnerability in North Carolina during COVID-19 (Health Affairs)
• Redesigning Maternity Care for the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
• How are Payment Reforms Addressing Social Determinants of Health? Policy Implications and Next Steps (Milbank)
• Health Care Use among Latinx Children after 2017 Executive Actions on Immigration (Pediatrics)
• The Health of Children in Immigrant Families: Key Drivers and Research Gaps through an Equity Lens (Academic Pediatrics)
• Pediatric Accountable Health Communities: Insights on Needed Capabilities and Potential Solutions (Healthcare)
• Health Equity Should Be a Key Value in Value-Based Payment and Delivery Reform (Health Affairs Blog)

Other

• Policy Considerations to Promote Equitable Cervical Cancer Screening and Treatment in Peru (Annals of Global Health)
• 2019 – 2020 Margolis Scholars COVID-19 Reflections

Webinars

• CMMI and Value-Based Care after COVID-19: Actions Needed to Achieve Care Transformation and Health Equity Goals (June 10, 2021)
• Prioritizing Equity in COVID-19 Vaccinations: Perspectives form States and Public-Private Partnerships (May 20, 2021)
• Margolis Scholars Present: Then and Now: The Importance of Historically-Informed Approaches to Addressing Racial Health Inequities in Responding to COVID-19 (April 9, 2021)
• Medicaid in North Carolina: COVID-19, Disparities, and Opportunities for Transformation (March 23, 2021)
• Supporting COVID-19 Response and Health System Resilience: What Needs to be Done Next (December 14, 2020)
• Point of Care: Speaker Series - Moving the Needle for the Public's Health: Innovative Approaches to Improving Health and Advancing Equity (January 22, 2020)

Presentations

2021

• Duke-Margolis Faculty members participated in and moderated discussions during the The Virtual National Health Equity Summit produced by Global Health Care, LLC. Andrea Thoumi presented a case study on creating equitable health systems for Latinx communities and Mark McClellan led a panel discussion on health equity in Medicaid payment and care delivery reform. Susan Dentzer, a member of the event’s planning committee, led the “Roundtable on the Role of Health System Leadership in Advancing Health Equity” as well as interviewed the Human Rights Campaign President Alphonso B. David regarding health equity challenges and opportunities for the LGBTQI+ community during the summit. 
• Rushina Cholera was a speaker on Identifying and mitigating social drivers of health to improve child health equity, organized by REACH Equity’s and the Center for Community and Population Health Improvement’s Health Disparities Research Works in Progress Seminar Series
• Andrea Thoumi was a moderator on Healthcare Access, Equity, & Success, organized by the Fuqua Sustainable Business & Social Impact (SBSI) conference
• Andrea Thoumi was a guest speaker on Daring Dialogues: COVID-19, organized by the Fuqua School of Business Community Engagement – Diversity and Inclusion
• Hemi Tewarson was a panelist on Building Confidence to Build Immunity: Vaccine Hesitancy and COVID-19, organized by the Alliance for Health Policy

2020

• Katie Greene was a panelist on COVID-19 Vaccines: The Realities and Next Steps, co-hosted by the National Academy of Medicine and the American Public Health Association (APHA).
• Andrea Thoumi was a panelist on Racial Inequality and COVID-19: International Perspectives at the Commonwealth Fund’s 2020 Virtual International Symposium.
• Hemi Tewarson and Margolis Advisory Board Member Esther Krofah were panelists on From Bench to Body: How the U.S. Health Care System Plans to Distribute COVID-19 Vaccines, organized by the Alliance for Health Policy