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Duke-Margolis Center For Health Policy Launches

Center appoints external advisory board, honors Dr. Robert Margolis

The Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy announced the appointment of an external advisory board at a public launch Thursday in Washington, D.C.

The event featured Duke University faculty engaged in health policy research and panel discussions focusing on the fast-changing health policy environment for healthcare transformation and high-value biomedical innovation.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) offered opening remarks.

Advisory board member Susan Dentzer, president and CEO, Network for Excellence in Health Innovation (NEHI), moderated a panel focused on healthcare transformation, which included Victor Dzau, president of the National Academy of Medicine. Advisory board members participating included David Brailer, managing partner, Health Evolution; David Feinberg, president & chief executive officer, Geisinger Health;  Michael O. Leavitt, Leavitt Partners and former governor of Utah, and Debra L. Ness, president, National Partnership for Women & Families.

A panel on high-value biomedical innovation was chaired by advisory board member Peter Orszag, vice chairman of investment banking & global co-head of healthcare, Lazard, and included Joseph Jimenez, chief executive officer, Novartis; David P. King, chairman and chief executive officer, Laboratory Corporation of America; Jessica Mega,  chief medical officer, Verily (formerly Google Life Sciences), and Dan Mendelson, president, Avalere Health.

Other advisory board appointees who could not attend the launch include Drew Altman,  president and chief executive officer, Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, Tony Coles (M’86), founding investor, chairman and chief executive officer, Yumanity Therapeutics, and Joseph R. Swedish (G ’79), chairman, president and chief executive officer, Anthem Healthcare.

“We are pleased and honored to have recruited such a unique and distinguished group to help guide the Duke-Margolis Center’s mission of improving health and the value of health care in our communities and around the world,” said Dr. Mark McClellan, Margolis Center director and Robert J. Margolis, MD, Professor of Business, Medicine and Health Policy.  “They have demonstrated leadership in making needed changes from a wide range of perspectives across the breadth of health care, biomedical research and population health. We appreciate their support for the Duke-Margolis approach to developing and analyzing new health policy ideas, and applying them in real-world settings, at a time when reform is both urgently needed and challenging to do effectively.”

During the event, speakers honored the vision and achievements of the center’s founder, Robert J. Margolis (M ’71), and his role in recruiting a top-notch advisory board and shaping the vision of the center. 

In October 2016, Duke University announced a $16.5 million gift from Margolis and his wife, Lisa, to create the center, which has offices in Durham, N.C., and Washington, D,C,, where Gregory Daniel, serves as deputy director and leads the biomedical innovation portfolio.

A 1971 graduate of the Duke School of Medicine, Robert Margolis is the retired managing partner and CEO of HealthCare Partners. He was a founder of the company's predecessor, California Primary Physicians Medical Group, and serves on the board of directors of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Hospital in Los Angeles and the National Committee for Quality Assurance.  He also held a fellowship in oncology at the National Cancer Institute.

Below, Robert and Lisa Margolis.