Inaugural Cohort in National Clinician Scholars Program Named at Duke, VA
Researchers Represent Schools of Nursing, Medicine and Durham VA Health Care System
DURHAM, N.C. – Three physicians and two post-doctoral nurses will comprise the inaugural cohort for Duke’s National Clinician Scholars Program (NCSP). The cohort represents the first group of interdisciplinary medical researchers selected for the newly established Duke NCSP site.
Duke was identified in the spring of 2018 as the fifth location within the National Clinician Scholars Program, a consortium of prestigious academic health care research institutions that provides training for doctors and post-doctoral nurses as change agents for driving policy-relevant research and partnerships to improve health and health care.
A partnership between the Durham VA Health Care System and the Duke University schools of medicine and nursing, the Duke NCSP joined the consortium that includes UCLA, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan. The Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute serves as the administrative home for the program at Duke.
The five scholars selected for this year’s cohort and their research interests are:
Sallie Allgood, Ph.D., RN – Alllgood’s research interests include examining how the integration of community health workers into primary care systems affects patients’ health outcomes and primary care utilization, as well as population-level health disparities and chronic disease risks. Her research will be conducted as part of the Durham VA Health Care System’s Nursing department.
Dominique Bulgin, Ph.D., RN – Bulgin plans to investigate the influence of stigma on sickle cell disease self-management and identify interventions to improve the health and quality of life of individuals with sickle cell disease.
Marcelo Cerullo, M.D., MPH – Cerullo is interested in investigating lung cancer screening guidelines and surgical referrals, imaging in oncologic decision-making, insurance market expansion and consolidation. His research will be conducted as part of the Durham VA Health Care System’s Surgery department.
Rushina Cholera, M.D., Ph.D. – Cholera’s research interests include improving health outcomes and access to care for children in Spanish-speaking immigrant families through identifying and mitigating psychosocial barriers to healthcare engagement.
Zoë Julian, M.D., MPH – Julian’s research interests focus on how incorporating community voice and justice-informed frameworks in health professions training and curriculum evaluation can mitigate health disparities and promote equity in obstetric and gynecologic care. Her research will be conducted as part of the Durham VA Health Care System’s Gynecology department.
The Duke NCSP focuses on community-based research, health services research, health policy, and implementation science across a broad range of disciplines. Scholars will build expertise in these disciplines because of the critical role they play in both improving health care access, equity, quality and outcomes, and identifying and implementing effective health care policies.
Nationally, the goal of the NCSP is to cultivate health equity, eliminate health disparities, invent new models of care, and achieve higher quality health care at lower cost by training nurse and physician researchers who work as leaders and collaborators embedded in communities, healthcare systems, government, foundations, and think tanks in the United States and around the world.
For more information, please visit the Duke NCSP ctsi.duke.edu/ncsp.