Dr. Francesca Duncan is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine with a dual appointment at Indiana University School of Medicine and Indiana University Health Physicians Group in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep & Occupational Medicine, as well as Associate Member of the Indiana University Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Dr. Duncan graduated Magna Cum Laude from Tuskegee University in Tuskegee, Alabama with a Bachelors of Science in Biology. She subsequently graduated Summa Cum Laude from Tuskegee University earning a Masters of Science in Biology. After the completion of her graduate education, she received an Intramural Research Training Award at the National Institute of Health (NIH)/National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Duncan is a graduate of Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tennessee where she earned her Medical Degree. She completed a combined Internal Medicine - Pediatrics residency training program at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center/Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She completed her fellowship training in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Her research interests include health disparities in lung cancer. Her work includes an exciting new field coined "social epigenomics" which has emerged as an integrative field of research focused on the identification of socio-environmental factors, their influence on human biology through epigenomic modifications, and how they contribute to current health disparities in lung cancer. She was recently awarded the Primary Care Reaffirmation for Indiana Medical Education (PRIME) Grant where she, along with Dr. Edwin Jackson, will analyze racial differences in lung cancer screening (LCS) by eligible individuals, and seek to improve LCS by directly engaging screening eligible individuals in primary care clinics and partnering with community stakeholders. They will also be creating a LCS curriculum for medical students and PCPs designed to provide information about LCS, shared decision making among screening eligible individuals, and management of positive findings.
Dr. Duncan's other research interest lies in medical education surrounding racism, discrimination, and microaggressions in medical education and academic medicine, which has led to co-organizing workshops presented locally, nationally, as well as published in MedPortal.
Dr. Duncan was recently appointed as Co-Chair of Equity and Inclusion for the Department of Medicine and we anticipate she will continue to promote and implement strategies to create a more diverse and equitable environment to work, learn, and conduct multidisciplinary research.
