Cardinale B. Smith

I am an Oncologist, Palliative Medicine Physician, And Healthcare Disparities Researcher.

Cardinale B. Smith, M.D., Ph.D.

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

My father, an Afro-Latino male, was diagnosed with metastatic rectal cancer at the age of 52. He developed pain, and when we tried to fill his opioid prescriptions, we found that the local pharmacies in his Brooklyn, NY, neighborhood either did not carry the opioids, refused to order it for him, or accused him of diversion when attempting to fill the prescription a day early. This experience of racism/bias was the catalyst for my research pursuits to achieve health equity.

Dr. Smith is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology and the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and the Chief Quality Officer for Cancer Services, Mount Sinai Health System. She is a medical oncologist and palliative care physician whose clinical practice is focused on lung cancer and palliative care. Dr. Smith's research interests focus on doctor-patient communication, evaluating treatment disparities in cancer care, determinants of cancer patients' quality of care, characterizing barriers to optimal cancer and palliative care, and developing approaches to eliminating those barriers among racial and ethnic minorities.

The outcomes of minority patients with advanced cancer remains poor, despite many attempts at improving equity. This project will evaluate the role of implicit bias among oncologists in contributing to some of these disparate outcomes, including patient-centered communication, pain, psychological distress, satisfaction with communication, and decisional conflict. We will audio record communication encounters of 60 oncologists and their 360 patients with advanced cancer in New York City and in Durham, NC, to evaluate differences in these critically important outcomes. This study is significant because findings will deepen our understanding of relationships between implicit bias, communication processes, management, and patient outcomes. The knowledge generated by our project could inform both physician-level educational programs and patient-specific interventions.


Grant Listing
Project Title Grant Number Program Director Publication(s)
The Role of Implicit Bias on Outcomes of Patients with Advanced Solid Cancers
1R01CA251547-01A1
Sallie Weaver


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Last Updated: 05/14/2021 12:19:46