Research Bio
RESEARCH INTERESTS: Dr. Dolan is a General Internist with more than 25 years of practice experience. He has a long-standing interest in improving the quality of clinical decision making at every level in the health care system. His research has primarily involved exploring the effects of multi-criteria decision making methods, particularly the Analytic Hierarchy Process, on doctor-patient communication, shared decision making, decision outcomes, translation of clinical evidence into practice, implementation of clinical guidelines, and the clinical decision making process. He has completed two NIH-funded studies examining multi-criteria support for decisions regarding colorectal cancer screening in average risk patients. He has also participated in studies involving the use of multi-criteria decision support and/or examining the clinical decision making process in a variety of other areas including vaginal birth after caesarian section, management of post-stroke foot drop, prevention of neonatal group A streptococcal sepsis, management of acute pharyngitis, and treatment of acute pyelonephritis.
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES: Dr. Dolan has a K-24 mid-career development award from the NHLBI that involves research exploring the extent to which there is a tradeoff involved between ease-of-use and accuracy in the use of multi-criteria methods for assessing decision makers' preferences and values regarding primary prevention of cardiovascular disease. He recently completed a NCI-funded study comparing the effectiveness of five different formats for presenting information about uncertain future outcomes to patients and a project funded by the Foundation for Informed Medical Decision Making that involved the design and initial evaluation of an interactive, computer-based, patient "decision dashboard" for choosing an arthritis pain medication.
