General Internal Medicine

Peter A Ubel, MD

Professor of Business Administration
Madge and Dennis T. McLawhorn University Professor
Professor in the Sanford School of Public Policy
Professor of Medicine
Associate of the Duke Initiative for Science & Society
Member of the Duke Cancer Institute
Campus mail 100 Fuqua Dr, Box 90120, Room W309, Durham, NC 27708-0120
Phone (919) 660-8003
Email address peter.ubel@duke.edu

I am a physician and behavioral scientist at Duke University. My research and writing explores the quirks in human nature that influence our lives — the mixture of rational and irrational forces that affect our health, our happiness and the way our society functions. (What fun would it be to tackle just the easy problems?)

I am currently exploring controversial issues about the role of values and preferences in health care decision making, from decisions at the bedside to policy decisions. I use the tools of decision psychology and behavioral economics to explore topics like informed consent, shared decision making and health care spending. My books include Pricing Life (MIT Press 2000) and Free Market Madness (Harvard Business Press, 2009). My newest book, Critical Decisions (HarperCollins), came out in September of 2012, and explores the challenges of shared decision making between doctors and patients.

Education and Training

  • M.D., University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, 1988
  • B.A., Carleton College, 1984

Grants

Publications

Kratka, A, Wong, CA, Herrmann, R, Hong, K, Karediya, A, Yang, I, and Ubel, PA. "Finding Health Care Prices Online-How Difficult Is It to Be an Informed Health-Care Consumer?." JAMA internal medicine 178, no. 3 (March 2018): 423-424.

PMID
29204598
Full Text

Lemmon, ME, Donohue, PK, Williams, EP, Brandon, D, Ubel, PA, and Boss, RD. "No question too small: development of a question prompt list for parents of critically ill infants." Journal of perinatology : official journal of the California Perinatal Association (February 22, 2018).

PMID
29472708
Full Text

Ubel, PA, Scherr, KA, and Fagerlin, A. "Autonomy: What's Shared Decision Making Have to Do With It?." The American journal of bioethics : AJOB 18, no. 2 (February 2018): W11-W12.

PMID
29393797
Full Text

Vassy, JL, Davis, JK, Kirby, C, Richardson, IJ, Green, RC, McGuire, AL, and Ubel, PA. "How Primary Care Providers Talk to Patients about Genome Sequencing Results: Risk, Rationale, and Recommendation." Journal of general internal medicine (January 26, 2018).

PMID
29374360
Full Text

Hunter, WG, Zafar, SY, Hesson, A, Davis, JK, Kirby, C, Barnett, JA, and Ubel, PA. "Discussing Health Care Expenses in the Oncology Clinic: Analysis of Cost Conversations in Outpatient Encounters." Journal of oncology practice 13, no. 11 (November 2017): e944-e956.

PMID
28834684
Full Text

Ubel, PA, Scherr, KA, and Fagerlin, A. "Empowerment Failure: How Shortcomings in Physician Communication Unwittingly Undermine Patient Autonomy." The American journal of bioethics : AJOB 17, no. 11 (November 2017): 31-39.

PMID
29111936
Full Text

Brick, DJ, Scherr, KA, and Ubel, PA. "The Impact of Cost Conversations on the Patient-Physician Relationship." Health communication (October 20, 2017): 1-9.

PMID
29053379
Full Text

Jagsi, R, Griffith, KA, Jones, RD, Stewart, A, and Ubel, PA. "Factors Associated With Success of Clinician-Researchers Receiving Career Development Awards From the National Institutes of Health: A Longitudinal Cohort Study." Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 92, no. 10 (October 2017): 1429-1439.

PMID
28537950
Full Text

Vassy, JL, Christensen, KD, Schonman, EF, Blout, CL, Robinson, JO, Krier, JB, Diamond, PM, Lebo, M, Machini, K, Azzariti, DR, Dukhovny, D, Bates, DW, MacRae, CA, Murray, MF, Rehm, HL, McGuire, AL, Green, RC, Cirino, AL, Ho, CY, Lane, WJ, Lehmann, LS, Morton, CC, Perry, DL, Seidman, CE, Sunyaev, SR, Nguyen, T, Steffens, E, Betting, WN, Aronson, SJ, Ceyhan-Birsoy, O, Lebo, MS, McLaughlin, HM, Tsai, EA, Blumenthal-Barby, J, Feuerman, LZ, Lee, K, Slashinski, MJ, Davis, K, Ubel, PA, and Kraft, P et al. "The impact of whole-genome sequencing on the primary care and outcomes of healthy adult patients: A pilot randomized trial." Annals of Internal Medicine 167, no. 3 (August 1, 2017): 159-169.

Full Text

Lee, CN-H, Deal, AM, Huh, R, Ubel, PA, Liu, Y-J, Blizard, L, Hunt, C, and Pignone, MP. "Quality of Patient Decisions About Breast Reconstruction After Mastectomy." JAMA surgery 152, no. 8 (August 2017): 741-748.

PMID
28467530
Full Text

Pages