"Duke trains physician-scientists who will change the trajectory of medicine. But our campus sits in Durham — a city with its own history, its own wounds, and its own health crises. Our students must be accountable to both."
"Durham's history of tobacco industry wealth and racial segregation is not background — it's the origin story of the health disparities you'll train in. Know this city before you arrive."
"Duke University Health System is considering entering a partnership with a major pharmaceutical company to fund a new cancer research center. The company's drug pipeline includes treatments primarily targeted at diseases of affluent populations. What questions should the ethics committee ask before approving this partnership?"
Practice this scenario with AI →the school has specific, public cases of research misconduct that shaped its current ethics culture.
NC finally expanded in 2023 after a decade of resistance.
this is a place with living memory of segregation and its health consequences.
Duke's population health programs explicitly link value-based care to reducing disparities.
"In 14 years of examining I have never failed a candidate for giving the 'wrong' answer. I have failed candidates for how they treated the person in the room with them."
Know the Bolus scandal at Duke (falsified data in NIH grants that cost the university $112M in settlement) — Duke's research ethics culture was shaped by this specific case.
Practice the COI analysis: who funds the research, what do they gain, how does funding shape study design and publication, and what safeguards exist?
Know the difference between a research ethics committee's role (prospective review) and research misconduct investigation (retrospective) — different processes, different protections.
Study the NC Institute of Medicine reports on rural health access — available publicly and specific to NC's geography.
NC expanded Medicaid in December 2023 — know how this changes the coverage gap for the 600,000+ who gained coverage and what gaps remain.
Read about Project Lazarus, a North Carolina-originated harm reduction program for opioid overdose prevention that became a national model.
Durham had a thriving Black business district in the early 20th century before it was demolished for urban renewal projects. This history of deliberate economic destruction shapes present-day distrust of institutions.
Know Lincoln Community Health Center — the primary safety-net clinic serving Durham's underserved communities and a major Duke training site.
Practice discussing race and place in healthcare without over-generalizing — Durham's specific history is more compelling than generic "structural racism" statements.
My station was about a pharmaceutical partnership for a research center focused on diseases of the wealthy. They wanted to know what ethical questions I'd raise before approval. Know the COI framework and how funding shapes research agendas.
Duke clearly prepares students for North Carolina — not just the Triangle. I had a station about a rural NC county with one clinic serving 10,000 people. Know NC's geography and its rural healthcare gaps.
They asked me about the NC Medicaid expansion directly. If you don't know that NC finally expanded in 2023 and why it took so long, that's a gap that will show.