Duke’s National Clinician Scholars Program (NCSP) welcomed its first cohort of scholars on July 1, 2019. The NCSP currently comprises six sites at institutions across the nation, offering unparalleled training for clinicians as change agents driving policy-relevant research and partnerships to improve health and health care.
The overarching goal of the national program is to cultivate health equity, eliminate health disparities, invent new models of care, and achieve higher quality health care at lower cost. Duke’s NCSP aims to build upon this objective by training inter-professional clinician scholars in data-driven inquiry, rigorous investigation, sensitive community-based participatory research, and the transformation of the health care practice. With proximity to key federal and state policy stakeholders, Duke NCSP joins resources from the Schools of Medicine and Nursing and the Durham VA Medical Center to create a unique training experience that prepares Scholars for leadership in clinical research and health policy locally, regionally, and nationally.
One of the scholars’ first assignments on campus will be to engage in a community immersion experience allowing them to apply guiding principles of community engagement and community-engaged research in health-related research and health improvement activities. The experience will involve gathering preliminary data for the upcoming Healthy Opportunities Pilots to evaluate the impact of providing select evidence-based, non-medical interventions related to housing, food, transportation and interpersonal safety to high-needs Medicaid enrollees.
“We are very excited to have our inaugural cohort of scholars on campus and they have jumped right in to assist with gathering data for the upcoming Health Opportunities Pilots,” said Devon Noonan, PhD, associate program director for Duke NCSP. “This experience has allowed them to gain a better understanding of Medicaid Transformation in North Carolina, learn more about Durham and the surrounding communities as well as introduce them to various stakeholders from local community organizations. This project fits exceptionally well with the goals of NCSP training program allowing the scholars to play a key role in improving the health and wellbeing our patients and our community.”
Please visit the national program website for further details on the overall scope of this program.