Individual differences can shape how patients and clinicians process information and make medical decisions. This course will introduce key concepts and methods for studying individual differences, explore how they can be incorporated into research, and identify opportunities for future work.
Faculty
Alistair Thorpe
Alistair Thorpe, PhD, is an Assistant Professor within the University of Utah Intermountain Health Department of Population Health Sciences at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine and an Honorary Research Fellow at University College London’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care. As a behavioral scientist in population health, he studies the barriers that can make it difficult for people to make decisions about their health and examines why some ways of sharing health information do not work well for patients and clinicians. Using this knowledge, he develops and tests strategies for presenting health information in ways that are clear, meaningful, and memorable, to help people make informed decisions.
Farrah Madanay
Farrah Madanay, PhD, is a core investigator in the Center for Value-Based Care Research at the Cleveland Clinic. She is a medical decision psychologist whose work focuses on improving clinician and patient judgment and decision-making, with particular attention to how psychological factors and presentation of information shape value-based care decisions.
Rebecca Delaney
Rebecca Delaney, PhD, is an Assistant Professor within the University of Utah Intermountain Health Department of Population Health Sciences at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. She is a life-span developmental psychologist whose research examines individual differences in decision making across the life span and within healthcare contexts. Her research uses quantitative, qualitative, and patient-centered methods to understand how patients and caregivers approach medical decisions and to develop interventions that support engagement in care.
Course Overview
This course will begin with an introduction to individual differences, including key typologies and examples of how they can influence medical decisions. Next, we will examine relevant theoretical models, measurement approaches, and the different roles individual differences can play in research. The instructors will then present case studies illustrating how these concepts can be applied in research and facilitate an interactive discussion with participants. The course will conclude with a discussion of limitations, gaps in the literature, and opportunities for future research.
Learning Objectives
Describe key types of individual differences and how they can influence medical decision making.
Identify theoretical models and measurement approaches used to study individual differences in healthcare contexts.
Apply concepts related to individual differences when designing and interpreting medical decision-making research.
Recognize current limitations, research gaps, and opportunities for future research on individual differences in medical decision making.
