Dr. Jenny Mack's work focuses on communication, decision-making, and care as experienced by cancer patients across the age spectrum, from childhood into old age. Her research has three core themes: communication in serious illness in children; end-of-life communication; and quality of end-of-life care. The overarching objective of her work is to build patient-clinician relationships and improve patient outcomes through effective communication.

Recent work in adolescents and young adults with cancer has allowed her to bridge interests in communication and end-of-life care for children and adults. The goals of the current research project are to measure the quality of end-of-life care for adolescents and young adults, and to develop patient-centered quality measures for end-of-life care for this young population. Quality indicators for end-of-life care have been developed, but largely based on the preferences of older adults. In Dr. Mack's work as a pediatric oncologist, she has seen that young people often have unique needs not fully encompassed in existing measures. The current project is designed to address that gap. Ultimately Dr. Mack hopes that this work will enable valid assessment of care quality and rigorous evaluation of interventions to improve adolescent and young adult end-of-life care delivery.