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Openings Available in Psycho-Oncology
Dr. Hoerger is accepting Psychology PhD students for the fall 2017 incoming class who are committed to Health Psychology research careers in psycho-oncology. Apply by 12/1/16.
Undergraduate research assistants interested in joining the lab starting the spring 2017 term should apply by 12/5/16. |
Academic Bio
Dr. Hoerger is an Assistant Professor of
Psychology, Psychiatry, and Oncology at Tulane University and a Contributing Member of the Tulane Cancer
Center. As a clinical health psychologist and decision scientist, he has devoted his career to conducting interdisciplinary research on quality of life in cancer, serving over 30 professional journals, teaching and mentoring,
providing clinical services, and engaging with the community on issues related to work, education, and health. Currently, he serves on the editorial board of Health Psychology, manages the charitable foundation web site for the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, and reviews grants for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI). As well, he was Tulane’s first faculty member to complete the Louisiana Clinical and Translational Science (LA CaTS) Center’s Roadmap Award.
Psycho-Oncology Research Program
Dr. Hoerger's research focuses on quality of life in cancer. Quality of life is often defined to encompasses both physical functioning as well as mental health outcomes, such as symptoms of depression and anxiety. Dr. Hoerger aims to support quality of life by conducting research in the following overlapping domains:
- Palliative Care: Increasing utilization of palliative cancer care, a multidisciplinary service for patients with advanced cancer or serious symptoms that is designed with the goal of supporting quality of life
- Clinician-Patient Interactions: Healthcare decision making, clinician-patient communication, patient education, patient empowerment, racial and socioeconomic health disparities
- Translational Psychological Science: Leveraging fundamental psychological knowledge of personality, emotion, and decision making to inform psycho-oncology research
- Methodology: Survey design, patient-reported outcome measures, psychometrics and other statistics
2016 News Coverage of Our Research
- July 14: An editorial in JAMA Oncology comments on the VOICE study team's research examining the mismatch between patients' and oncologists' perceptions of prognosis in advanced cancer
- June 20: The Psychology Times covers Dr. Hoerger's Visiting Scholar experience conducting research on palliative cancer care at Massachusetts General Hospital at the Harvard School of Medicine
- May 3: Ms. Barkan's research from our lab on personality and health service utilization triggers a JACM press release