WMCWeill Medical College of Cornell University · Biomedical Engineering
End-of-Life Care Research Lab
Holly Gwen Prigerson · New York, New York
Research Focus
Dr. Holly Prigerson's lab focuses on improving the quality of end-of-life care for cancer patients and their families. Her research addresses the emotional and psychosocial challenges faced by patients in the last stages of their lives, aiming to educate oncologists on better communication about prognosis and treatment options. The lab also emphasizes the role of caregivers and healthcare chaplains in providing comprehensive support, while developing interventions to alleviate patient distress and promote advance care planning.
end-of-life carecancer treatmentpsychosocial factorspalliative careadvance care planning
Research Aims
4AIM 01Investigate the impact of oncologist communication on patient understanding of prognosis.
AIM 02Develop strategies to enhance caregiver support and engagement in end-of-life care.
AIM 03Assess the role of healthcare chaplains in addressing spiritual needs of cancer patients.
AIM 04Evaluate psychosocial interventions to reduce distress in patients and their caregivers.
Skills the Lab Values
patient communicationqualitative research methodspsychosocial intervention strategiesdata analysishealthcare chaplaincy integration
Output against the department
Publications569top 12% of dept.73rd of 595
this lab
most publishedleast published
Citations35ktop 6% of dept.38th of 595
this lab
most citedleast cited
Career totals from OpenAlex, compared against labs that share a department. A department spans everything from one paper to tens of thousands, so bar heights are on a log scale — otherwise the largest lab would flatten every other bar to a line.