Dr. Teresa Hagan Thomas is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. She also serves as the Director of Advocacy at the Family CARE Center at UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital Gynecologic Oncology Clinic. Dr. Thomas holds an undergraduate degree in anthropology and international peace studies from the University of Notre Dame and a bachelor’s of nursing science and PhD in nursing research from the University of Pittsburgh.
Her program of research focuses on promoting patient self-advocacy among women with cancer. She previously developed a theoretical framework and measure to describe how individuals with cancer advocate for their needs and priorities. Dr. Thomas’s research evaluates the impact of a theoretically-based, patient-centered serious game (a motivational video game) intervention on women with advanced cancer’s self-advocacy skills, symptom burden, and use of health care services. Currently, she is conducting a multi-site randomized clinical trial assessing the efficacy of a self-advocacy serious game to improve self-advocacy skills in women newly diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer or advanced gynecologic cancer.
