The Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy was launched in 2016 with seven core faculty and a vision to bring the multidisciplinary research and policy analysis needed to address complex health care challenges.

A decade later the center now includes 81 core and affiliated faculty from five different schools and a successful record of sharing health policy research with policymakers, advancing health care reform and educating a new generation of health policy experts.

With that record, Margolis leaders told the Academic Council last week that the next step for the center is to become an institute to help raise Margolis’ external reputation, recruit new faculty and grow its educational efforts at a moment when students are looking for additional learning opportunities in health policy.

“Our early graduates from our educational programs include three Rhodes scholars and emerging reform leaders across the public and private sectors,” said Gillian Schmidler, Margolis Center deputy director. “Our transition to a university-wide institute will be a great opportunity to further our collaborative work.”

Center director Mark McClellan told faculty the center’s strategic approach of connecting scholars to community partners, private enterprise leaders and policymakers to advance evidence-based health policy made the center an ideal candidate to become an institute, the highest level of Duke’s organization of interdisciplinary units.

He said the center’s community work had created partnerships around the state to promote health care reform and Medicaid expansion, but that there was more to do in this area. McClellan also noted the prominent work Margolis-affiliated faculty did during the COVID pandemic to address inequities in care and health outcomes. That work both showed the strength of the center’s scholarship and its ability to partner with others at Duke and in community groups.

McClellan was asked whether expanding the center into an institute would duplicate the work of other units at Duke Health and the Duke Global Health Institute that work on health policy. He replied that the center’s history of developing joint programs with DGHI and other units, as well as their coordination on initiatives during the pandemic, showed a strong record of cooperation.

In this, he received support from Dr. Gavin Yamey, DGHI’s associate director of policy, who listed several efforts, from grant proposals to internships, where cooperation with Margolis benefited both units.

“In many ways, our work with Margolis is complementary, rather than duplicative,” Yamey said.

The proposal comes as Duke has instituted a system of reviews for institutes, centers and initiatives. In the past few years one institute has been phased out and two other programs merged into the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment and Sustainability. That process included creation of criteria for becoming an institute, criteria that the Margolis Center has met, said Ed Balleisen, vice provost for interdisciplinary studies.

The Margolis proposal has been approved by the faculty-led Academic Programs Committee, which reviews all new programs and changes in program status. Following last week’s discussion, the Academic Council has scheduled a vote on the proposal at its November meeting.