Medical Psychology (research)

Following the mission of the department of Medical Psychology, the research is focused on two themes "quality of life" and "medical communication".

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Themes

  • Quality of Life: The research line "Quality of Life", coordinated by Prof. dr. Mirjam Sprangers, is directed at the physical, psychological, and social consequences of the disease and treatment as experienced by the patients. In other words, the patient perspective is the focus of research. This research line is also aimed at investigating other patient reported outcomes, including adherence, treatment preferences, health state evaluations, adaptation to illness, and other psychosocial outcomes. Studies examine patient reported outcomes and the consequences of the disease and treatment from a theoretical, methodological, and/or clinical perspective. This research line also shares responsibility for coordinating the development and implementation of quality-of-life studies in a range of national and international clinical investigations.
  • Medical Communication: The second line of investigation "Medical Communication" is coordinated by Dr. Ellen Smets. In this research line emperical research is focused on the position of health-care providers and patients and their interaction. Relevant themes include providing information, decision-making, and giving advice regarding behavioral change. A special focus is on these themes in the context of genetics/genomics.

Embedding

These two research lines are subsumed under the ‘speerpunt Public Health’. Some members of the research staff are also member of the research school Psychology & Health (P&H), whereas others are member of the Patient Provider Interaction group (PPI) or the Inter-universitair Opleidingsinstituut Psychometrie Sociometrie (IOPS). Prof. Sprangers is also Foreign Adjunct Professor at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm,Sweden and research collaborator at the Department of Health Sciences Research of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, US.

Researchers.