Dr. Christina LaVecchia

Neumann University

Description of Work:

Broadly speaking, in healthcare spaces I collaborate on research related to patient-clinician communication, shared decision-making (care that is individualized to meet patients’ values and preferences), and minimally disruptive medicine (care that is least burdensome on patients’ lives). What I’m currently working on: my collaborators and I are studying patients’ experiences with contested, medically unexplained symptoms and conditions, which we have termed undercared-for chronic suffering. By focusing on the effects of the biological uncertainty behind these symptoms, rather than the uncertainty itself, we think our qualitative systematic review and prospective study can lend legitimacy to these patients’ social and physical experiences with illness and can suggest policies that support careful and kind care.