COVID Projects & Response | Duke Duke Department of Family Medicine and Community Health

Department of Family Medicine & Community Health faculty, staff, trainees, and students have been at the forefront of Duke Health's response to COVID-19 through clinical care, educational offerings, research, and advocacy. Here is a summary of ways our department has been involved.

Patient Care & Community Health

Duke Family Medicine Center Became the Epicenter of Durham's Initial Response

The week of March 9, 2020, Duke Family Medicine Center staff received training on safety and testing protocols―including swabbing and donning and doffing PPE―and on conducting telehealth visits. On March 12 the clinic tested its first potential COVID-19 patients, and the next day 32 patients were tested. For months after that, Duke Family Medicine Center served as ground zero for COVID-19 testing at Duke, manning Duke Health's first drive-through testing tent for several months.

Testing Expanded to East Durham at Holton Wellness Center

Duke Health, the City of Durham, and Durham Public Schools partnered to expand COVID-19 testing to East Durham with a testing site at Holton Wellness Center, which is administered by the Division of Community Health.

Caring for Duke's Employees

Duke Employee Occupational Health & Wellness (EOHW) played an integral role in Duke Health's COVID-19 response. Director Carol Epling, MD, assistant professor of family medicine and community health, is a member of Duke's emergency management team, and EOHW mobilized quickly and continues to support screenings, symptom monitoring, contact tracing, and testing for all of Duke's employees. Read more.

Caring for Duke's Students

Duke Student Health faculty, under the leadership of Division Chief John Vaughn, MD, and Medical Director Hunter Spotts, MD, serve on the university's emergency management team and have been caring for Duke's students throughout the pandemic. The university's pooled testing strategy was featured in an article in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Providing Support in the Region

Department of Family Medicine & Community Health faculty Michelle Lyn, MBA, MHA, division chief of community health, and Fred Johnson, MBA, are serving as project directors for Duke University Health System's contract to lead Region 3's COVID-19 Support Services Program for N.C. Department of Health and Human Services. Region 3 includes Durham, Vance, and Granville counties. The program supports North Carolinians in 20 targeted counties who are asked to isolate or quarantine due to COVID-19 and need assistance such as food, relief payments, or access to primary medical care. Learn more.

Education & Training

Duke PA Program Creates Contact Tracing Elective

The Duke Physician Assistant Program partnered with the Durham County Department of Public Health to create a community health elective that put clinical-year PA students to work on the front lines of the local COVID-19 response. Students were trained to do case interviews and contact tracing, making calls to individuals who tested positive and those they had come into contact with, and to utilize their clinical training to offer medical advice when needed.

Duke Physician Assistant Program Adapts to Changes Overnight, Continues to Innovate

The Duke Physician Assistant Program, under the leadership of Jacqueline S. Barnett, DHSc, MHS, PA-C, leaned into challenges while looking for opportunities to re-imagine the structure of students’ education, not just for the immediate crisis, but for the future.

Duke Physician Assistant Students Volunteer at Vaccination Clinic

More than 50 PA students signed up to volunteer in local vaccine clinics. According to a recent Duke University School of Medicine news story, "Student volunteers have played a number of roles, including registering patients, educating patients about the vaccine, preparing and administering the vaccine, and observing vaccinated individuals for any immediate side effects. Students as well as other volunteers receive training and are overseen by a credentialled health care professional. All volunteers also are eligible to get a COVID-19 vaccine."

Research & Scholarship

Publications

D'Agostino EM, Armstrong SC, Humphreys L, et al. Symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 transmission in youth and staff attending day camps. Pediatrics. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-042416

Denny TN, Andrews L, Bonsignori M, et al. Implementation of a Pooled Surveillance Testing Program for Asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infections on a College Campus — Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, August 2–October 11, 2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. ePub: 17 November 2020. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6946e1.

Seidelman J, Lewis S, Advani S, Akinboyo I, Epling C, Case M, et al. Universal Masking is an Effective Strategy to Flatten the SARS-2-CoV Healthcare Worker Epidemiologic Curve. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2020 Jun 24;1–5.

Schwartz A, Stiegel M, Greeson N, Vogel A, Thomann W, Brown M, et al. Decontamination and Reuse of N95 Respirators with Hydrogen Peroxide Vapor to Address Worldwide Personal Protective Equipment Shortages During the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) Pandemic. Applied Biosafety. 2020 Jan 1;

Michener L, Aguilar-Gaxiola S, Alberti PM, Castaneda MJ, Castrucci BC, Harrison LM, et al. Engaging With Communities — Lessons (Re)Learned From COVID-19. Prev Chronic Dis 2020;17:200250. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5888/pcd17.200250

Projects

Emily D’Agostino, DrPH, MS, MEd, MA, assistant professor of family medicine and community health, is on a project team developing and testing a virtual platform to increase equitable physical activity opportunities for youth in home and community settings during COVID-19. This national effort is in direct response to school closures due to the pandemic, and is in collaboration with researchers at University of South Carolina, Indiana University, Kennesaw State University, and University of Northern Colorado.
Lavanya Vasudevan, PhD, is on a project team testing a contact tracing app.
Community-based Testing and Primary Care to Mitigate COVID-19 Transmission (2020-21: Department residents and faculty are leading a Bass Connections project to address COVID-19 inequities in Durham County's Black and Latinx populations by strengthening collaboration between clinical, policy and community partners and assessing long-term sustainability.
Bridging the Health Equity Gap for COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in Durham (2021-22): Department residents and faculty are leading a Bass Connections project with aims to make equitable vaccine uptake in Durham County a reality by increasing health equity and equitable access to the COVID-19 vaccination resources, including vaccine information and distribution, and improving the responsiveness of the local health system at the community level for the Latinx and Black communities of Durham County.
Coping with COVID-19: Using Behavioral Science and Digital Health to Promote Healthy Families (2020-21): Tiarney Ritchwood, PhD, assistant professor of family medicine and community health, is on a Bass Connections project team to address the need for feasible, scalable interventions to strengthen family relationships in low-resource settings during the pandemic.
Improving Food Security to Increase Resiliency to COVID-19 for Latinx Populations (2020-21): Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, FAAFP, is a team leader on a Bass Connections project aimed at addressing food security in the Latinx community.
Race and COVID-19: Outcomes that Matter to the Black Community: Nadine Barrett, PhD, assistant professor of family medicine and community health, will lead the community-engaged project.

Honors & Recognition

LATIN-19, co-founded by Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, FAAFP, associate professor of family medicine and community health, received the 2020 Latino Diamante Health & Science Community Award, a statewide award to recognize excellence, outstanding achievements and to honor individuals and organizations that are making significant contributions in the Hispanic/Latino/Latinx community of North Carolina
Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, FAAFP, associate professor of family medicine and community health, was awarded the 2020-21 F. Marian Bishop Leadership Award from the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine (STFM) Foundation for her many contributions to family medicine on a global and local stage, including her role and presence with WONCA, the World Organization of Family Doctors, her tireless work during the COVID-19 pandemic in the local community and in advocating for Latinx health equity across North Carolina, and her commitment to medical education through her innovative work at Duke Health.

Advocacy & Advising

Local and State

Faculty are advising the Durham Recovery and Renewal Task force on topics related to the Latinx and LGBTQ+ communities.
LATIN-19: Faculty and residents are serving on the Duke Latinx Advocacy Team & Interdisciplinary Network for COVID-19, co-founded by Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, associate professor of family medicine and community health
Faculty and residents are serving on the NC Department of Health and Human Services' COVID-19 work group for Historically Marginalized Populations
Faculty and residents have been featured in a series of PSAs for the NC Department of Health and Human Services aimed at the state's Latinx community
African American COVID Taskforce Plus (AACT+): Local task force co-founded by Duke Family Medicine residents Roosevelt Campbell, PhD, MD, and Andrew Flynn, MD, instrumental in identifying and combatting COVID-19 health disparities in the local Black community. Read more about AACT+

Media Attention

Duke Health News Releases

OpEds

Lavanya Vasudevan, PhD, wrote an op-ed "COVID-19 pandemic is no time to skip childhood vaccinations" picked up by several news outlets, including Charleston Post & Courier and The Charlotte Observer.
Lavanya Vasudevan, PhD, wrote an op-ed "A vaccine can lead us out of the pandemic - but only if people get vaccinated"
picked up by several news outlets including The Miami Herald, Charleston Post & Courier, The Charlotte Observer and others.
Emily D’Agostino, DrPH, MS, MEd, MA, wrote an op-ed, "Make the Next Generation More Science-Literate," for the New York Daily News.
Tiarney Ritchwood, PhD, wrote an op-ed "In Pandemic, Who Cares for the Poor?" published by Medium.

Invited Commentaries

Lavanya Vasudevan, PhD, wrote an invited commentary, "Vaccine Hesitancy in North Carolina: The Elephant in the Room?" for the North Carolina Medical Journal.

On Caring and Advocating for the Latinx Community

Faculty Participation in Duke Media Briefings

April 7, 2021: Lavanya Vasudevan, PhD, MPH, on “Vaccines: Herd Immunity, Passports, Reaching the Underserved”

December 10, 2020: Lavanya Vasudevan, PhD, MPH, on "Overcoming reluctance to mask up, distance and vaccinate"

October 21, 2020: Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, FAAFP, on "How to Trick or Treat, Enjoy Holidays Safely This Year"

September 18, 2020: Lavanya Vasudevan, PhD, MPH, on "Flu season, COVID-19 and vaccination"

July 22, 2020: Lavanya Vasudevan, PhD, MPH, on "Public Health Messaging"

June 10, 2020: Viviana Martinez-Bianchi, MD, FAAFP, on "Effects of COVID-19 on Latinx Community"