Teresa Hagan Thomas

Dr. Thomas is a leader in promoting self-advocacy among patients with cancer. Her research, teaching, and service are dedicated to improving the health and well-being of individuals affected by cancer, serious illness, and difficulties navigating the healthcare system. She actively mentors graduate and undergraduate students along with clinical trainees. She also serves as the Associate Director of Mentorship and Nursing Research for the Palliative Research Center (PaRC) at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Thomas received her BA in anthropology and international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame before earning her accelerated BSN and PhD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing. She earned a certificate in Consumer Health Advocacy from the University of Wisconsin – Madison’s Center for Patient Partnerships. She completed a postdoctoral fellowship in supportive oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Research Areas & Scholarly Emphasis

Dr. Thomas has developed a model and measure of how patients advocate for their needs and priorities within the context of their cancer experience – the Self-Advocacy in Cancer Survivorship Scale. Currently, her research evaluates the impact of a theoretically-based, patient-centered serious game (a motivational video game) intervention on patients with advanced cancer’s self-advocacy skills, symptom burden, and use of health care services. She also has funding to evaluate the best practices in how train patients with cancer to be peer navigators to support the needs of other adults with cancer. She also works with clinicians to understand how healthcare clinicians can promote self-advocacy among their patients. Dr. Thomas’s other areas of interest include cancer self-management, caregiver cancer care delivery, instrument development and testing, and financial distress related to chronic health problems. Dr. Thomas partners with patient advocates, national organizations, patients, and caregivers to implement patient-directed clinical interventions to improve their quality of life and healthcare utilization.

She has received funding from the National Institute of Nursing Research (F31 NR014066), the National Cancer Institute (R37 CA262025), the American Cancer Society, the Oncology Nursing Foundation, Sigma Theta Tau International, Rockefeller University, the Beckwith Institute, and the Nightingale Awards of Pennsylvania in support of her research.

Teaching

Dr. Thomas teaches health policy, mixed methods research procedures, qualitative methods, oncology nursing, instrumentation, and community health to undergraduate and graduate students.

Service

Dr. Thomas is faculty at the Family CARE Center at UPMC Magee Women’s Hospital, an academic-clinical partnership and nurse-led cancer caregiver center embedded within clinical care. In addition, she is an active member of the Oncology Nursing Society, National Palliative Care Research Center, and the Eastern Nursing Research Society.

Clinical Emphasis

Dr. Thomas's clinical focus is in oncology and palliative care.