Harvard Catalyst Profiles

The Health Decision Sciences Center (HDSC) at Massachusetts General Hospital is committed to improving the quality of decisions made by patients and health care providers about medical tests and treatments. The HDSC is involved in developing, implementing, and evaluating decision aids and decision quality measures to support shared decision making in medical encounters. We are seeking students to participate in a research internship and assist with ongoing studies. This is an exceptional opportunity to get experience with cutting edge research focused on patient engagement and delivery of patient-centered care. Students will be supervised by Karen Sepucha, PhD, Director of the Health Decision Sciences Center and KD Valentine, PhD, Postdoctoral Research Fellow.
Project Proposal for Spring 2020:

The Center has several ongoing studies:

1. Promoting Informed Decisions about Cancer Screening in Older Adults (PRIMED Study). This multi-site randomized trial is examining the impact of a skills training course for primary care physicians on conversations with older adults considering whether to continue or stop colorectal cancer screening.
2. PRIMED-COVID Study. This extension of the PRIMED study explores the reactions of patients who have had their colonoscopies rescheduled or delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and is evaluating an intervention to help patients navigate their options for colon cancer screening during the pandemic.
3. Implementation of patient decision aids for elective orthopedic surgery decisions. This implementation science project is a collaboration across Orthopedic Departments at hospitals affiliated with MassGeneralBrigham as well as others across the US. We aim to improve the quality of elective surgery decisions by implementing patient decision aids into routine orthopedic care for four conditions: hip and knee osteoarthritis, lumbar herniated disc and spinal stenosis.
4. Impact of cognitive function on shared decision making. This project is a collaboration with the Weiner Center for Preoperative Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. We are surveying older adults (65+) who have scheduled surgery to assess their knowledge about the procedure, amount of shared decision making, and level of cognitive function. The data will be used to refine a clinical survey instrument that measures shared decision making.
5. Aortic valve replacement decisions. This project is a collaboration with the cardiology department and aims to identify if a decision aid for patients with AS can improve patient’s decision quality.

Student activities may include:

• Literature review
• Key informant interviews and/or focus groups with patients, caregivers, and clinicians
• Observation of clinic visits and mapping of clinic workflow (maybe be virtual)
• Development and testing of decision support tools (paper-based, online, video)
• Survey research: designing questionnaires, screening patients, preparing mailings, reminder phone calls, data entry, medical chart review
• Data analysis: qualitative analyses of interviews and focus groups, basic and advanced quantitative data analytics, and data visualization
• Use of Microsoft Office Suite, Redcap, Access, R, SPSS
• Manuscript contributions (writing, editing, proofing, references)
• Local conference poster presentations
• Grant proposal contributions

Interested? Send the following to KD Valentine via email (kvalentine2@mgh.harvard.edu) a 1 page (maximum) statement describing your research interests and goals and how this experience might help with your development and Your CV or Resume.

To learn more about The Health Decision Sciences Center, visit our website:
https://mghdecisionsciences.org/