Our Team

Stewart Alexander, MA, MLS, PhD

Dr. Stewart C. Alexander is an Assistant Research Professor in Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine at Duke University and a Research Health Scientist Specialist at the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care at the Durham VA Medical Center. He received his undergraduate education at Purdue University (1985-1989) in West Lafayette, Indiana; both his MLS and MA degrees at Indiana University (1989-1991; 1992-1994) in Bloomington, Indiana; and his PhD in speech communication at the University of Illinois (1996-2002) in Urbana, Illinois. He completed his post-doctoral fellowship in health communication at the HSR&D Center for Excellence in Primary Care at the Durham VA Medical Center (2002-2004). Dr. Alexander joined the faculty in October 2004.

Recently, Dr. Alexander received a Career Development Award (CDA-2) through the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop a patient-centered communication system for measuring how veterans and their providers communicate about their healthcare.

Dr. Alexander’s research interest is in the development of communication evaluation systems for measuring provider-patient communication. His communication research is in two areas of health care that demand different communication behaviors from providers: 1) talking with seriously ill cancer patients about prognosis and psychosocial concerns; and 2) addressing weight loss with overweight and obese patients. Both types of encounters require sensitivity and advanced communication behaviors.

In serious illness conversations, his work focuses on evaluating the ways physicians, residents, physician assistants, and other medical house staff: (1) deliver bad news to patients and families, (2) recognize and respond to patient emotions, (3) discuss prognosis and treatment options, and (4) discuss transitions to palliative care. In addressing weight loss, he has worked on evaluating how physicians counsel and educate their obese and overweight patients about weight loss.

Currently, Dr. Alexander is a co-investigator on nine NCI funded studies, one VA funded study, and four private funded grants that address these issues.

In addition to developing communication evaluation systems, Dr. Alexander and colleagues have developed an integrated computerized program to analyze health care communication that could upload, store, evaluate, and export audio communication data. The program is called ENCOUNTER, (Enhancing Communication UNderstanding Through Electronic Recording) and works via an Internet-based, password protected site. ENCOUNTER is designed to allow principle investigators, research coordinators, and research assistants access to a centralized database where multiple projects can be analyzed simultaneously. One of the important features of ENCOUNTER is that it allows users to not only identify certain behaviors, but to also capture these behaviors as audio-clips that can be listened to at a later time.

Selected publications:

Robinson TM, Alexander SC, Hays M, Jefferys AS, Olsen MK, Rodriguez KL, Pollak KI, Abernathy AP, Arnold R, Tulsky JA. Patient-Oncologist communication in advanced cancer: Predictors of patient perception of prognosis. Support Care Cancer, in press.

Anderson WG, Alexander SC, Rodriguez KL, Jeffreys AS, Olsen MK, Pollak KI, Tulsky JA, Arnold RM. “What concerns me is . . .” Expression of emotion by advanced cancer patients during outpatient visits. Support Care Cancer, in press.

Pollak, KI, Arnold, R, Jeffreys, A, Alexander , SC , Olsen, M, Abernethy, AP, Skinner, CS, Rodriguez, KL, Tulsky, JA. Oncologist communication about emotion during visits with advanced cancer patients. Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2007;25:5748-52.

Pollak, KI, Østbye, T, Alexander , SC , Gradison, M, Bastian, LA, & Brouwer, RJN. Lyna, P. How overweight and obese female patients discuss weight loss with their physicians: Does it matter? Journal of Family Practice. 2007; 56(12): 1031-6.

Alexander SC, Østbye T, Pollak KI, Gradison M, Bastian LA, Namenek Brouwer RJ. Physicians’ beliefs about discussing obesity: Results from focus groups. American Journal of Health Promotion, 2007;21;498-500.

Back AL, Arnold RM, Baile WF, Fryer-Edwards KA, Alexander SC, Barley GE, Gooley TA, Tulsky JA. Efficacy of communication skills training for giving bad news and discussing transitions to palliative care. 2007;167;453-60.

Alexander SC, Keitz SA, Sloane R, Tulsky JA. A controlled trial of a short course to improve medical house staff communication with patients at the end of life. Academic Medicine. 2006; 81;1008-12.

Koropchak CM, Pollak KI, Arnold RM, Alexander SC, Skinner CS, Olsen M, Jeffreys A, Rodriguez KL, Abernethy AP, Tulsky JA. Studying Communication in Oncologist-Patient Encounters: The SCOPE Trial. Palliative Medicine. 2006;20;813-9.

Alexander SC, Sleath B, Golin CE, Kalinowski CT. Provider-patient communication. In Bosworth H, Weinberger M, Oddone GZ. Patient treatment adherence: Concepts, interventions, and measurement. Mahwah , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.;2005;329-72.

Alexander SC, Peterson JL, Hollingshead AB. Help at your keyboard: Support groups on the Internet. In L. Frey, ed. Group communication in context: Study of bona fide groups. 2 ed. Mahwah , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum;2003;309-34.

Goldsmith DJ, McDermott VM, Alexander SC. Helpful, supportive, and sensitive: Measuring the evaluation of enacted social support in personal relationships. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. 2000;17;369-91.