Helping the Demand Find the Supply: Messaging the Value of Specialty Palliative Care Directly to Those With Serious Illnesses.

health services and outcomes research, information-technology enabled registries, supportive oncology and palliative care, quality assessment and improvement

Dr. Docherty’s research is aimed at improving outcomes for children, adolescents, young adults and families undergoing treatment for life-limiting and chronic conditions. She studies how to improve care models, symptom management, and decision making from diagnosis through end of life.  She has methodological expertise in the use of qualitative, mixed-methods, trajectory science and visualization methodologies for complex data exploration, and intervention development and testing.

Dr. Bryce Reeve is a Professor of Population Health Sciences and Professor of Pediatrics at Duke University School of Medicine.  He also serves as Director of the Center for Health Measurement since 2017.  Trained in psychometric methods, Dr. Reeve’s work focuses on assessing the impact of disease and treatments on the lives of patients and their caregivers.  This includes the development of clinical outcome assessments using both qualitative and quantitative methods, and the integration of patient-centered data in research and healthcare delivery settings to inform decision-making.  From 2000 to 2010, Dr. Reeve served as Program Director for the U.S. National Cancer Institute and oversaw a portfolio of health-related quality of life research in cancer patients. From 2010 to 2017, he served as Professor of Health Policy and Management at the University of North Carolina.  From 2011-2013, Dr. Reeve served as President of the International Society for Quality of Life Research (ISOQOL).  In 2015, he received the John Ware and Alvin Tarlov Career Achievement Prize in Patient-Reported Outcomes Measures.  In 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021, he was ranked in the top 1% most-cited in his respective field over the past 11-year period.

Greg Samsa is an applied statistician whose primary interests are in study design, instrument development, information synthesis, practice improvement, effective communication of statistical results, and teaching. He is a believer in the power of statistical thinking, as broadly defined.

Dr. Pollak is a social psychologist who designs and tests behavioral interventions to promote smoking cessation, reduce health disparities, and improve clinician-patient communication. She also is one of the Multiple Principal Investigators of the Palliative Care Research Cooperative that supports multi-site palliative care trials. Finally, Dr. Pollak serves as a Communication Coach where she teaches clinicians effective communication techniques.

Area of expertise: Health Behavior