Marlaine Figueroa Gray, PhD
“Listening to patient experiences of health, illness, and medical care is a privilege, and my most important work.”
Marlaine Figueroa Gray, PhD
Assistant Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute
206-287-2620
Biography
Marlaine Figueroa Gray, PhD, is a medical anthropologist with a passion for eliciting illness narratives and health care experiences from patients, family members, and medical professionals. She has researched how the intersection of creative practices and medical care provide insight into understanding the logic of biomedical care, what counts as evidence that a creative activity "works," and how arts activities can serve as a model of how to provide better, more patient- and family-centered care. She is particularly interested in how we attend to patient suffering, and in what types of care are possible when no medical treatments are available.
Her previous work includes examining education policy in sub-Saharan Africa and developing curricula for health education, specifically HIV/AIDS education in Kenya and Mozambique.
Dr. Figueroa Gray has extensive experience designing qualitative studies and analyzing qualitative data. At Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (KPWHRI), she uses this expertise to examine how patients, family members, and physicians make medical decisions when outcomes are uncertain and stakes are high, such as deciding whether or not to participate in an immunotherapy trial, or choosing which treatments to pursue as an adolescent or young adult with advanced cancer. She founded the KPWHRI Qualitative Research Interest Group, which supports outstanding qualitative research at the institute.
RESEARCH INTERESTS AND EXPERIENCE
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Child & Adolescent Health
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Social Determinants of Health
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Complementary & Integrative Health
Implementation of alternative healing programs in U.S. hospitals; patient and provider experience of alternative healing programs
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Medical Education
Use of the arts in medical education; history of medical education; medical school curriculum development -
Cancer Care and End of Life Care
Oncology support and care; end of life decision making
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Integrative Medicine and Arts in Healing Programs
Participant experience; benefits; values and funding; legacy projects -
Patient-Centered Care
Shared decision making; care logics
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Global Health
HIV/AIDS education; maternal and child health; sub-Saharan Africa
Recent publications
Wernli KJ, Haupt EC, Chawla N, Osuji T, Shen E, Smitherman AB, Casperson M, Kirchhoff AC, Zebrack BJ, Keegan THM, Kushi L, Baggett C, Kaddas HK, Ruddy KJ, Sauder CAM, Wun T, Figueroa Gray M, Chubak J, Nichols H, Hahn EE. Emergency Department Use in Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Early Survivors from 2006 to 2020. LID - 10.1089/jayao.2023.0174 [doi] J Adolesc Young Adult Oncol. 2024 Apr 29. doi: 10.1089/jayao.2023.0174 [Epub ahead of print] PubMed
Figueroa Gray M, Randall S, Banegas M, Ryan GW, Henrikson NB. Personal legacy and treatment choices for serious illness: A scoping review. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2024 Jan 24:spcare-2023-004439. doi: 10.1136/spcare-2023-004439. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Shapiro LN, Gray MF, Freitag C, Taneja P, Kariya H, Crane PK, O'Hare AM, Vig EK, Taylor JS. Expanding the ethnographic toolkit: Using medical documents to include kinless older adults living with dementia in qualitative research. J Aging Stud. 2023 Jun;65:101140. doi: 10.1016/j.jaging.2023.101140. Epub 2023 May 10. PubMed
Nichols H, Wernli KJ, Chawla N, O’Meara ES, Figueroa Gray M, Green LE, Baggett CD, Casperson M, Chao C, Jones SM, Kirchhoff AC, Kuo T, Lee C , Malogolowkin M, Quesenberry CP, Ruddy KJ, Wun T, Zebrack B, Chubak J, Hahn EE, Keegan TH, Kushi LH. Challenges and opportunities of epidemiological studies to reduce the burden of cancers in young adults. Curr Epidemiol Rep. 2023 Sep;10(3):115-124. doi: 10.1007/s40471-022-00286-9. Epub 2022 Mar 29. PubMed
Taylor JS, Figueroa Gray MS, Mar CM, Crane PK, Kariya H, Freitag C, Taneja P, Ramaprasan A, Shell Duncan B, O'Hare AM, Berridge C, Vig EK, Wheeler SGB, Thakral M, Hawkes RJ, Larson EB. Kinless older adults with dementia: Qualitative analysis of data from the Adult Changes in Thought (ACT) study. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2023 Feb 21:gbad030. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbad030. [Epub ahead of print]. PubMed
Research
Supporting young adults through cancer and beyond
A potential new care model for young cancer survivors centers patient needs, support networks.
Research
Study sheds light on needs of young people with cancer
Understanding emergency department use among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors can help address care gaps.
New findings
Using long-term data to understand a vulnerable population
Studies offer insights into the lives of older adults with dementia who lack family.
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