Scholars@Duke
Debra Lynn Best

Debra Lynn Best

Professor of Pediatrics
Pediatrics, General Pediatrics and Adolescent Health
debra.best@duke.edu
DUMC Box 3675, Durham, NC 27710
Dept of Pediatrics, Durham, NC 27710

Scholarly Works - Journal articles

Community Navigation: Iterative Development and Implementation of a Prenatal Psychosocial System of Care.

Journal article Prev Sci · August 2026 We describe the iterative process of developing a universal psychosocial system of primary care across early life, called Community Navigation, and evaluate whether it can be implemented during the prenatal period with high engagement, identification of fa ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Implementation of Emotional Connection Training in Pediatric Primary Care: Mixed Methods Study.

Journal article JMIR Med Educ · June 16, 2026 BACKGROUND: In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics released a policy statement spotlighting the health-promoting and stress-buffering effects of early relational health (ERH) and calling for universal ERH promotion in pediatric primary care. However, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Trauma-Informed Physical Examination.

Journal article Pediatr Rev · August 1, 2025 Full text Link to item Cite

Addressing food insecurity: a paediatric academic advocacy collaborative quality initiative.

Journal article BMJ Open Qual · May 13, 2025 OBJECTIVE: This quality improvement (QI) initiative aimed to address food insecurity (FI) by improving FI identification and referral to food assistance programmes for the families served by the eight paediatric academic institutions in North and South Car ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Pediatric advocacy: Advancement in academic institutions.

Journal article Pediatr Res · May 2024 Children are facing many threats to their health today that require system change at a sweeping level to have real-world impact. Pediatricians are positioned as natural leaders to advocate for these critical community and policy changes. Academic medical c ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Sudden cardiac arrest response preparedness in Durham County schools.

Journal article Cardiol Young · September 2023 Sudden cardiac arrest is an uncommon event with high morbidity and mortality. There are improved outcomes with early access to an automated external defibrillator and cardiopulmonary resuscitation. We assessed the availability of automated external defibri ... Full text Link to item Cite

Advocacy in Pediatric Academia: Charting a Path Forward.

Journal article Pediatr Clin North Am · February 2023 Pediatricians are effective advocates to improve the health and well-being of children, yet there are limited avenues by which to pursue academic promotion based on these activities. Drawing on an expanded definition of scholarship, pediatric advocates can ... Full text Link to item Cite

Advancing early relational health: a collaborative exploration of a research agenda.

Journal article Front Pediatr · 2023 Here, we introduce the Early Relational Health (ERH) Learning Community's bold, large-scale, collaborative, data-driven and practice-informed research agenda focused on furthering our mechanistic understanding of ERH and identifying feasible and effective ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Impact of a universal perinatal home-visiting program on reduction in race disparities in maternal and child health: Two randomised controlled trials and a field quasi-experiment.

Journal article Lancet Reg Health Am · November 2022 BACKGROUND: Public health interventions must become accountable for reduction of race disparities, particularly among Black, Hispanic, and Non-Hispanic White families in the United States. Family Connects (FC) is a universal perinatal home-visiting program ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Academic Careers in Advocacy: Aligning Institutional Values Through Use of an Advocacy Portfolio.

Journal article Pediatrics · July 1, 2022 Academic children's hospitals must embrace advocacy as a central component of their missions to discover new knowledge and improve the health of the communities and patients they serve. To do so, they must ensure faculty have both the tools and the opportu ... Full text Link to item Cite

Transitioning to virtual interaction during the COVID-19 pandemic: Impact on the family connects postpartum home visiting program activity.

Journal article Infant Ment Health J · January 2022 In this paper, we analyze program activity for Family Connects (FC), an evidence-based postpartum home-visiting intervention, during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the pandemic began, FC transitioned to a virtual protocol which maintains key psychosocial comp ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Home Visiting Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Program Activity Analysis for Family Connects.

Journal article Matern Child Health J · January 2022 PURPOSE: Early reports highlighted challenges in delivering home visiting programs virtually during the COVID-19 pandemic but the extent of the changes in program implementation and their implications remains unknown. We examine program activity and famili ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Health Care Use Among Latinx Children After 2017 Executive Actions on Immigration.

Journal article Pediatrics · February 2021 BACKGROUND: US immigration policy changes may affect health care use among Latinx children. We hypothesized that January 2017 restrictive immigration executive actions would lead to decreased health care use among Latinx children. METHODS: We used controll ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Community Pediatrics Training Initiative Project Planning Tool: A Practical Approach to Community-Based Advocacy.

Journal article MedEdPORTAL · September 18, 2017 INTRODUCTION: To impact social determinants of health, physicians require knowledge, skills, and attitudes to work with communities beyond the clinical milieu. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Community Pediatrics Training Initiative (CPTI) project ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Analysis of a zebrafish semaphorin reveals potential functions in vivo

Journal article Developmental Dynamics · January 1999 Full text Cite

Math5 encodes a murine basic helix-loop-helix transcription factor expressed during early stages of retinal neurogenesis

Journal article Development · December 1, 1998 ABSTRACTWe have identified Math5, a mouse basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) gene that is closely related to Drosophila atonal and Xenopus Xath5 and is largely restricted to the developing eye. Math5 retinal expr ... Full text Cite

Molecular cloning and expression of two novel zebrafish semaphorins

Journal article Mechanisms of Development · August 1998 Full text Cite