Keynote Speaker

Thursday June 16, 2005
8:30 – 9:30
Room A

Cultural Influences on the Physician - Patient Encounter: The Case of Treatment Decision-Making

Cathy Charles, PhD, Amiram Gafni, PhD, and Timothy Whelan BM,BCh,MSc

Biography

Cathy Charles

Cathy Charles is an Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics and a Member of CHEPA at McMaster University. She is also an Investigator in the Supportive Cancer Care Research Unit which is co-sponsored by the Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre and McMaster University. Cathy received a B.A. and M.A. in Sociology at the University of Toronto and a M.Phil. and Ph.D. in Socio-Medical Sciences from Columbia University.

Cathy’s research interests include: public and patient participation in health care and treatment decision-making, shared treatment decision-making, the use of research information in health decision-making and the social construction of meanings in health policy analysis. She is currently undertaking a collaborative study on shared treatment decision-making among women with early stage breast cancer and among physicians who specialize in this area. She is also PI on a funded research project on the role of patient values in evidence-based medicine. Cathy’s teaching interests include medical sociology, health policy analysis, and qualitative research methods. Cathy has been a health policy consultant to several provincial governments as well as to the federal government.