Professor, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Member, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis

Cathy Charles is a Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, a member of CHEPA at McMaster University, and an Investigator in the Supportive Cancer Care Research Unit which is co-sponsored by the Hamilton Regional Cancer Centre and McMaster University. She is also a Research Collaborator in the SPARC Program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and has been an Honourary Research Associate in the Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia. Charles received a BA and MA in Sociology at the University of Toronto and a M.Phil. and PhD in Socio-Medical Sciences from Columbia University.  Her research interests include public and patient participation in health care and treatment decision-making, physician-patient communication, shared treatment decision-making, and the use of research information to improve decision-making in the clinical encounter. She is currently undertaking a variety of collaborative studies, both in Canada and internationally, in different clincial contexts on the above issues, as well as developing conceptual papers to clarify thinking on essential research and practical issues in these areas.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• shared treatment decision-making
• physician-patient relationship
• public participation in health care decision-making
• research transfer
• social constructions of health/health care policy  

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS  

Charles, CA, Gafni A, Whelan T. Decision-Making in the Physician-Patient Encounter: Revisiting the Shared Treatment Decision-Making Model.  Social Science & Medicine, 1999; 49:651-661.

Charles CA, Gafni A, Whelan T.  Shared Decision-Making in the Medical Encounter: What Does It Mean? (Or, It Takes at Least Two to Tango).  Social Science and Medicine, 1997; 681-692.

Katz SJ, Charles CA, Lomas J, Welch HG. Physician Relations in Canada: Shooting Inward While the Circle Closes.  Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 1997; 22(6): 1413-1431.  Also CHEPA Working Paper #95-13, McMaster University.

Charles CA, Lomas J, Giacomini M, Bhatia V, Victoria V.  Medical Necessity in Canadian Health Policy: Four Meanings and . . . a Funeral.  Milbank Quarterly, 1997; 75(3): 365-394.

Charles CA, DeMaio S.  Lay Participation in Health Care Decision-Making:  A Conceptual Framework.  Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, 1993; 18(4): 881-904. Also published as CHEPA Working Paper #92-16, McMaster University .

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

• Qualitative Research Methods
• Health Policy Analysis
• Medical Sociology