James G. Dolan, M.D.

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.

RESEARCH ACTIVITIES: Dr. Dolan is the principal investigator of a CDC Special Interest project that will test the use of a decision dashboard to help clinicians counsel men with newly diagnosed low grade prostate cancer regarding their treatment options. He also recently served as a methods expert on a FDA-funded grant exploring ways to assess stakeholder preferences in their new device approval process. He also recently completed a K-24 mid-career development award from the NHLBI that, in addition to mentoring junior investigators, included a series of studies exploring the extent to which multi-criteria methods involve a tradeoff between ease-of-use and accuracy. Other recent studies include a NCI-funded study comparing the effectiveness of five different formats for presenting information about uncertain future outcomes to patients, a study multi-site study that assessed patient preferences for recommended colorectal cancer screening tests, 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.