Health policy activities and events at Duke

Linda George, Ph.D., Associate Director of the Aging Center was honored with Graduate School Mentoring Awards.

Linda George has won many aways in her nearly 30-year career at Duke. But of all the recognition she has received, Georg values the mentoring awards the most.

Allen Buchanan has been named the James B. Duke Professor of Public Policy Studies and Philosophy.

Frank Sloan, J. Alexander McMahon Professor of Health Policy and Management and Professor of Economics, was selected for a National Institutes of Health (NIH) MERIT Award in recognition of his high level of research productivity. The award was given along with renewal of Sloan’s Institute on Aging grant titled “Visual Impairment, Treatment and Effects on the Elderly.”

The NIH MERIT (Method to Extend Research in Time) Award recognizes researchers who have demonstrated superior competence and outstanding productivity. Fewer than 5 percent of NIH-funded investigators receive MERIT Awards.

Sloan noted that although the recognition went to him,“ the work benefited from a number of collaborators, including my graduate students, one of my former graduate students, and faculty colleagues in the departments of ophthalmology and medicine.”

Sherman James, Susan B. King Professor of PPS, gave the keynote address titled “Social Determinants of Cardiovascular Disease in African American Men” Sept. 8 at the Second Annual Maya Angelou Research Center Conference on Minority Health and Health Disparities at Wake Forest University in Winston- Salem. He also was appointed to a five-year term on the editorial board of PHYSIS: Revista de Saude Coletiva, a Brazilian public health journal, and has joined the Duke Council on Latin
American Studies.

Christopher Conover, assistant research professor of PPS, delivered his paper, “How the U.S. achieved universal health coverage under George W. Bush” at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association in September.

Is There Really an HIV/AIDS Epidemic and a Funding Crisis in the Southern States?
Kathryn Whetten, Associate Professor of Public Policy; and Director, Health Inequalities Program, was one of three Duke researchers to speak on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the southern states. The goal of this forum was to discuss policy-relevant research on health policy currently being conducted at Duke and to promote an interchange between Duke faculty and the Washington, D.C. health policy community.

Cutting Regulation Costs Could Allow Health Coverage for All
Christopher Conover, an assistant research professor at Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, said his findings are based on more than two years of research. http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/news/healthcoverage_0104.html

Allen Buchanan, Professor of PPS and Philosophy, has recently received Duke's Thomas Langford Lectureship Award for 2003-04. He was one of five recipients recognized by the program, initiated three years ago as a tribute to the memory of Thomas Langford, former Divinity School faculty member, Dean and Provost. The Langford Lectureship is designed to provide the general faculty with an opportunity to hear about the ongoing scholarly activities of recently promoted colleagues.

"Cook to Study Alcohol Tax, Control through RWJ Health Policy Award"
Phillip J. Cook, ITT/Terry Sanford Professor of Public Policy Studies and Professor of Economics and Sociology, has recieved a prestigious Investigator Award in Health Policy Research from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. His project, "The Health and Social Consequences of Alcohol Taxation and Control," will produce a broad and comprehensive account of the economic and public health effects of alcohol-excise taxation, age-based prohibition, advertising restrictions and other control measures.

Allen Buchanan, Professor of PPS and Philosophy, has been named by Gov. Mike Easley to the state's Eugenics Study Committee. The group, chaired by N.C. Secretary for Health and Human Services Carmen Hooker Odom, will investigate how the state's sterilization program started, how to prevent it from happening again, and what kind of reparations will be made to survivors. Between 1929 and 1974, 7,600 North Carolinians were forced to undergo sterilization surgery.

"Duke Prof: Health Coverage for Uninsured Tied to Economy"
How President Bush tries to address the issue of uninsured Americans could boil down to how the economy is faring prior to the 2004 presidential election, says Chris Conover, a health policy expert. read more

Linda George, a professor of sociology at Duke, who also teaches courses for the Health Policy Certificate, wrote a article in the Dialogue. Her article, entitled "Sociology and the Study of Health" explores the links between religion and health. "The limits of conventional survey-based research have been powerfully demonstrated to me through the research that my colleagues and I have conducted regarding the links between religion and health...." Read more in the Dialogue.

"Silent" AIDS Epidemic Continues to Ravage American South Officials need to take action to stop the spread of AIDS in the American South, says Kathryn Whetten-Goldstein, a Duke assistant professor of public policy studies and community and family medicine. http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/news/newstip.asp?id=1190&catid=3,2&cpg=newstip. asp

Kevin Schulman was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This article addresses concerns over industry sponsored health care studies and the lack of unifying standards.

In a recent article concerning Duke's health plan, Chris Conover, director of the Sanford Institute of Public Policy's health policy certificate program and also a member of the Faculty Compensation Committee, the group advising Duke's health plan changes, said if Duke chose not to raise thier insurance rates, they would have to make up the difference in salary anyway. "It would be irresponsible not to makes some changes." This article recently appeared in The Chronicle.

Far From Support: AIDS Study Turns to Rural Communities. People newly diagnosed with HIV/AIDS today are more likely than in the past to be female, young, heterosexual, a racial minority, and live in rural areas. They are also less likely to trust the health care system or to have social support from community family, often leading them to miss appointments or refuse treatment. More of what Katherine Neal said at the Dialogue.

Duke Scientist Funded to Expand Adolescent Drug Research Kenneth A. Dodge, director of the Center for Child and Family Policy in Duke's Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, will receive $591,851 to investigate the development and prevention of adolescent drug use. http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/policy/dodge_award.html

Have an Announcement?

Send us a blurb and we'll post it. We also maintain e-mail lists of a) health policy certificate students; b) faculty interested in health policy; c) Fuqua health sector management students; d) Fuqua health sector management faculty. We can e-mail your announcement to any or all groups. Contact Dr. Chris Conover.