*Dr. Rob Saunders (Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy) Robert S. Saunders, Ph.D., the senior research director of health care transformation at the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. Dr. Saunders is part of the Center’s executive team and leads the strategic design, management, and direction of the health care transformation research domain within the Center.
The strategic goals for his portfolio include generating practical evidence on payment and delivery reforms, identifying lessons learned from COVID, developing new ways to meet people’s social needs and improve health equity, supporting North Carolina and other states in their efforts to improve health and value, and informing policy through convenings and stakeholder engagement.
Prior to joining Duke-Margolis, Dr. Saunders was senior director and then senior advisor to the president of the National Quality Forum and senior program officer at the Institute of Medicine. He also managed health care legislative affairs for Representative Rush D. Holt. He has a Ph.D. in Physics from Duke University, where he focused on improving medical imaging for early-stage cancer diagnosis, and an undergraduate degree from William & Mary.