C&BH Faculty: Catherine Messina

Catherine R. Messina, Ph.D.
Research Associate Professor

Office Phone: (631) 444-8266
e-mail:
catherine.messina@stonybrook.edu

Academic Interests:
Compassionate Care
Medical Education
Social Science
Physician-Patient Relationship
Dr. Messina received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from Stony Brook University in 1999. Dr. Messina participates as a small group facilitator in the Self-Awareness, Ethics, and Prevention components of the Foundations of Medical Practice course for 1st year medical students Her research focuses on psychosocial influences on health and health behaviors (e.g., hostility and risk for coronary heart disease; attitudes and perceptions relating to cancer screening). She is the Principal Investigator of a federally funded project examining decision making about cancer screening among elderly women, which includes the role of patient perceptions of physician caring. As a member of the research faculty of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics, she is involved in developing projects focused on prospectively examining trends in the expression of compassion among medical students over the course of their medical education. She identifies modifiable and non-modifiable factors that shape the expression of compassionate medical care or act as barriers to it.
 
Selected Publications:
 

Anderson JC, Latreille M, Messina CR, Alpern Z, Grimson R, Marin C, Hubbard P, Shaw RD. Smokers as a high risk group: Data from a screening population. Journal of Clinical Gastroenterology. Accepted.

Messina CR, Lane DS, Colson RC (2009). Colorectal cancer screening among users of county health centers and users of private physician practices. Public Health Reports, 124: 568-578.

Lynch SM, Vrieling A, Lubin JH, Kraft P, Mendelsohn JB, Hartge P, Canzian F, Steplowski E; Arslan AA, Gross M, Helzlsouer H, Jacobs EJ, LaCroix A, Petersen P, Zheng W, Albanes D, Amundadottir L, Bingham SA; Boffetta P, Boutron-Ruault MC, Chanock SJ, Clipp S, Hoover RN, Jacobs K, Johnson KC, Kooperberg C; Luo J, Messina CR, Palli D, Patel AV, Riboli E, Xiao-Ou Shu; Laudina Rodriguez Suarez; Gilles Thomas; Anne Tjonneland; Geoffrey S. Tobias; Tong E, Trichopoulos D, Virtamo J, Ye W, Yu K, Zeleniuch-Jacquette A, Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita H, Stolzenberg-Solomon RZ (2009). Cigarette smoking and pancreatic cancer: A pooled analysis from the Pancreatic Cancer Cohort Consortium. American Journal of Epidemiology; doi: 10.1093/aje/kwp134

Lane DS, Messina CR, Cavanagh MF, Chen JJ (2008). A provider intervention to improve colorectal screening in county health centers. Medical Care, 46: S109-S116.

Pasket ED, Reeves KW, Rohan TE, Allison MA, Williams CD, Messina CR, Whitlock E, Sata A, Hunt JR. (2007). Association between cigarette smoking and colorectal cancer in the Women’s Health Initiative. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 99:1729-1735.

Anderson JC, Messina CR, Dakhlallah D, Abraham B, Alpern Z, Martin C, Hubbard-Ells PM, Grimson R, Shaw RD (2007). Body mass index: A marker for significant colorectal cancer neoplasia in a screening population. Journal of Clinical Gastroenology, 41: 285-290.