Project Objectives

This project team will work alongside the Lancet Commissioners tasked with exploring the health economics of potential strategies to reduce hearing loss. Team members will seek to identify barriers and facilitators for various policy solutions.

The team will identify existing systematic reviews of the empirical literature, perform novel evidence synthesis, develop a full literature review paper and review research from different disciplines to identify evidence-based strategies for reducing hearing loss.

Team members will also identify primary data needed to inform a modeling framework for the evaluation of costs and benefits of potential strategies. The modeling framework will represent the populations of interest (varying by demographics and geographic location), interventions under consideration (such as screening, prevention, protection and treatment strategies), outcomes of interest (such as impact on length and quality of life, productivity and costs) and settings for implementation. An impact analysis will be used to reflect the use of resources and population impact of available strategies.

Project Opportunities

Ideally, this project team will be comprised of 3 graduate students and 10 undergraduate students. While all students are encouraged to apply, students from social sciences, natural sciences, medicine and public policy disciplines would likely be most engaged by the research.

Students can develop skills in qualitative and policy analysis research, oral and written communication and self- and group-management. This project will give students exposure to a wide variety of health care stakeholders and, thus, an increased understanding of diverse perspectives. The hands-on aspect of the project will allow students to be active in every stage, learn how to translate research to inform complex health policy and educational issues and discover how to work with global policymakers to impact program and policy development.

Participants will work as a group to perform the literature and systematic review, develop the decision modeling framework, synthesize available data and findings, perform model analysis, draft papers and policy briefs and participate in stakeholder meetings and presentations. The team will meet weekly to discuss key concepts, project tasks and progress as well as troubleshoot concerns or issues.

A graduate student will be selected to serve as project manager.

Students will have the opportunity to work on the project during either Summer 2020 or Summer 2021. The summer component is optional; students would work for 10 weeks (40 hours per week) and participate in the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy summer internship program.

Selected students will have the opportunity to travel to Lancet Commission workgroup meetings during late summer or early fall 2020 in Europe (either at the World Health Organization headquarters or the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center) and in May 2021 in London for the release of the report.

Project Application Process

Students can apply using our online application. Applications are due on February 14 by 5:00 p.m.