Duke National Clinician Scholars Program (NCSP) scholar Dominique Bulgin, PhD, RN, has been selected as a Research Scholar by the REACH Equity Center. The program is intended to support early-stage investigators who are interested in conducting health disparities research.
The theme for the REACH Equity Center is to address racial and ethnic disparities in health by developing and testing interventions that improve the quality of patient-centered care in the clinical encounter. As a Research Scholar, Dr. Bulgin’s research will focus on pilot testing a telehealth Personalized Health Planning in Shared Medical Appointments program in adults with sickle cell disease.
Since arriving starting as an NCSP scholar, Dr. Bulgin has worked closely with the Population Health Management Office (PHMO, the Duke Adult Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, the Health Disparities Research Colloquium (HDRC), and the Center for Personalized Health Care (CPHC) while developing her research.
“My research interests have always been around the management of sickle cell diseases, including barriers to disease self-management, specifically stigma,” Dr. Bulgin said. “Working with the CPHC on workshops focused on other chronic diseases, I’ve found opportunities to adopt this holistic approach to sickle cell disease.”
Dr. Bulgin joined the inaugural Duke NCSP cohort in 2018. She has loved being a part of the NCSP program and values its intensive structure, including informative seminars and research opportunities.
“The NCSP program is not just a traditional postdoc program,” Dr. Bulgin said. “It has exposed me to different areas and experiences that I was not informed on. It has helped me better envision a plan for the future.”