Faculty and Staff

Carol Decker, RN, PhD, CPHQ - Adjunct Research Professor

Carol Decker

Phone: 816.932.5440

Email: c1decker@saint-lukes.org

CV: DeckerC.pdf

Biography: Dr. Decker’s research focuses on cardiovascular patient-centered outcomes such as health status, physical functioning, symptom burden, and quality of life. Her active research studies are exploring patient decision making and the impact on outcomes; specifically on medication adherence behavior as well as the use of individualized, risk-adjusted consent documents for cardiac procedures.<br><br>

While working in Intensive Care, I became very interested in how patients and their families made treatment decisions, often without any data and only minimal information. This began my interest in two things: first, providing patients with individualized, understandable information, and, second, outcomes research – how do patients “do” after everything we “do” to them? I’ve combined both of these interests into research about providing patients with information on outcomes of interest to them (such as quality of life, symptom burden, and physical functioning) and understanding how this helped them make decisions about their cardiac treatments.

Recent Publications:

  • Decker C, Garavalia L, Garavalia B, Spertus JA. Clopidogrel Taking Behavior by Drug Eluting Stent Patients: Discontinuers versus Continuers. Patient Preference and Adherence 2008; 2:167-175.
  • Reeves GR, Wang TY, Reid KJ, Decker C, Ahmad H, Alexander KP, Spertus JA, Peterson ED. (2008: in press). The Dissociation between Documentation of Post Myocardial Infarction Smoking Cessation Counseling and Actual Smoking Cessation Outcomes. Archives of Internal Medicine.
  • Decker C, Garavalia L, Chen C, Buchanan D, Nugent K, Shipman A, Spertus JA. Acute myocardial infarction patients’ information needs over the course of treatment and recovery. Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing 2007;22:459-465.
  • Decker C, Huddleston J, Kosiborod M, Buchanan DM, Stoner C, Jones A, Banerjee S, Spertus JA.Self-Reported Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Patients with Previous Acute Coronary Syndrome. Am J Card 2007;99:930-933.
  • Garavalia L, Decker C, Reid K, Lichtman J, Mallik S, Vaccarino V, Krumholz H, & Spertus JA. Does health status differ between men and women in early recovery after myocardial infarction? J Women’s Health (Larchmt). 2007 Jan-Feb;16(1):93-101.


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