Staff: Paul Han, MD, MA, MPH
Paul Han, MD, MA, MPH
- Office of the Associate Director (OAD)
- Behavioral Research Program (BRP)
paul.han@nih.gov
240-276-7281
Paul Han, MD, MA, MPH, is a Senior Scientist in the Behavioral Research Program (BRP). His broad scientific interests are in risk communication and medical decision making, and his expertise spans the disciplines of behavioral and health services research. His specific interests are in understanding and improving the communication and management of uncertainty in health care, spanning various clinical problems including cancer prevention and treatment, genomic medicine, and palliative and end-of-life care.
Dr. Han earned his MD from the New York University School of Medicine, and an MA in Bioethics and an MPH from the University of Pittsburgh. He completed Internal Medicine residency training at the University of California, Los Angeles, and spent the first half of his career as a practicing general internist and palliative medicine physician, before completing an NCI Cancer Prevention Fellowship and shifting his focus to research. Dr. Han is the author of Uncertainty in Medicine: A Framework for Tolerance (Oxford University Press, 2021), as well as over 180 papers and book chapters in the peer-reviewed medical literature, and he has been actively involved in initiatives to improve risk communication, shared decision making, and uncertainty management skills among medical students and physicians.
As part of his Senior Scientist role in BRP, Dr. Han is leading an NCI cross-division working group devoted to improving the communication of risk and uncertainty, as well as a federal inter-agency working group on hazard and uncertainty communication, convened through the Social and Behavioral Science workgroup of the US Office of Science and Technology Policy. He also serves as an adjunct investigator with the Clinical Genetics Branch (CGB) in the NCI Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics, and is leading research projects that use qualitative and quantitative methods to study the communication and management of uncertainty in various cancer control settings, including cervical cancer prevention and screening in low- and middle- income countries, and cancer screening for individuals with inherited cancer susceptibility syndromes.
Current and/or past CGB mentees include Emily Pearce and Abigail Ukwuani.
Current and/or past BRP mentees include Carlos Garrido and Jackelyn Payne.
Scientific Interests
- Medical uncertainty
- Shared decision making
- Risk communication
- Predictive modeling
- Cancer screening
- Cancer genomics
- Palliative and end-of-life care
Selected Publications and Presentations
- Sepucha KR, Chang Y, Valentine KD, Atlas SJ, Han PKJ, Leavitt LJ, Mancini B, Richter JM, Siegel LC, Fairfield KM, Simmons LH. Shared Decision-Making in Colorectal Cancer Screening for Older Adults: A Secondary Analysis of a Cluster Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open 2024 Aug 1; 7(8):e2429645.
- Haggstrom DA, Braafladt SM, Han PKJ. Active Surveillance for Low-Risk Cancer-The Waiting Is the Hardest Part. JAMA Oncol 2024 Aug 15.
- Rubinstein WS, Patriotis C, Dickherber A, Han PKJ, Katki HA, LeeVan E, Pinsky PF, Prorok PC, Skarlupka AL, Temkin SM, Castle PE, Minasian LM. Cancer screening with multicancer detection tests: A translational science review. CA Cancer J Clin 2024 Jul-Aug; 74(4):368-382.
- Anderson EC, DiPalazzo J, Lucas FL, Hall MJ, Antov A, Helbig P, Bourne J, Graham L, Gaitor L, Lu-Emerson C, Bradford LS, Inhorn R, Sinclair SJ, Brooks PL, Thomas CA, Rasmussen K, Han PKJ, Liu ET, Rueter J. Genome-matched treatments and patient outcomes in the Maine Cancer Genomics Initiative (MCGI). NPJ Precis Oncol 2024 Mar 9; 8(1):67.
- Valentine KD, Leavitt L, Sepucha KR, Atlas SJ, Simmons L, Siegel L, Richter JM, Han PKJ. Uncertainty tolerance among primary care physicians: Relationship to shared decision making-related perceptions, practices, and physician characteristics. Patient Educ Couns 2024 Mar 2 ; 123:108232.
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