This Fox Chase professor participates in the Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship.
Learn more about Research Volunteering.
Professor, Cancer Prevention and Control Program
Editor in Chief, Translational Behavioral Medicine: Practice, Policy, Research
The overarching goal of Dr. Miller's lab is to make cancer prevention-control programs more effective by identifying the distinctive ways in which individuals make decisions, adjust to risk information and manage recommended medical regimens. She employs a transdisciplinary team approach in designing, developing and evaluating both traditional (e.g., print materials, telephone counseling) and new technology (e.g., text-messaging, web-based applications) interventions tailored to individual differences and targeted to group differences among patients and their families. Dr. Miller's work is based on her integrative theory-based framework, the Cognitive-Social Health Information Processing (C-SHIP) model, and focuses on interventions to enhance decision-making for prevention, treatment and clinical trial options; adherence to recommended screening, prevention and treatment regimens; adjustment to cancer risk feedback; and the translation and dissemination of interventions into clinical, community and other service settings and systems.
Dr. Miller's recent funded research has focused on developing and evaluating interventions designed to:
The overarching goal of Dr. Miller's lab is to make cancer prevention and control programs more effective by identifying the distinctive ways in which individuals make decisions, adjust to risk information, and manage recommended medical regimens. She employs a transdisciplinary team approach in designing, developing, and evaluating both traditional (e.g., print materials, telephone counseling) and new technology (e.g., text-messaging, web-based applications) interventions tailored to individual differences and targeted to group differences among patients and their families. Dr. Miller's work is based on her integrative theory-based framework, the Cognitive-Social Health Information Processing (C-SHIP) model, and focuses on interventions to enhance decision-making for prevention, treatment, and clinical trial options; adherence to recommended screening, prevention, and treatment regimens; adjustment to cancer risk, diagnostic, and survivorship feedback; and the translation and dissemination of psychosocial interventions into clinical, community, and related service settings and systems.
Dr. Miller’s lab has been among the first to explore decision aids for treatment and clinical trials decision making for cancer patients. In addition, she has explored the impact of web-based programs on adaptation after the transition to survivorship to promote self-management skills, communication patterns, and recovery.
Survivorship among cancer patients is a core element of her research program, including exploring the transitions of care that accompany a cancer diagnosis. Dr. Miller has been characterizing the challenges faced by survivors and their partners/caregivers in the oncologic setting, including poor physical functioning and negative psychological outcomes, as well as the unique challenges faced by patients with co-morbid conditions who decide to be followed in the primary care setting. These challenges have been addressed in the web-based PROGRESS (Prostate Cancer Online Guide & Resource for Electronic Survivorship) intervention, where the intervention group reported improved coping and fewer practical concerns, and the EXCELS (Extended Cancer Education for Longer-term Survivors) intervention.
In the area of cancer disparities, Dr. Miller has conducted an extensive program of research in the Temple Health catchment area to improve adherence and adjustment to follow-up recommendations after an abnormal screening result, among underserved urban populations, who bear a disproportionate burden of cancer in both incidence and mortality rates. Further, she has focused on the psychosocial barriers as well as the mediators and moderators that undermine the uptake of follow-up among at-risk women, especially over the long term. Miller’s work has also identified greater care needs and higher risk of poor post-treatment outcomes among men with prostate cancer who have low health literacy or depressive symptoms, which is particularly relevant to disparities due to the high rates of prostate cancer in the region that Temple Health serves.
Dr. Miller has an established program in behavioral risk modification, including as it relates to tobacco control. Most recently, in collaboration with Dr. Enrique Hernandez of Temple’s Lewis Katz School of Medicine and Dr. Kuang-Yi Wen of Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (Thomas Jefferson University), she has been exploring the factors that undermine smoking cessation among urban underserved women, and has developed and tested texting interventions that facilitate prolonged smoking cessation to address the high rates of lung cancer in the catchment area. Participants reported high satisfaction with the program and rated the text messages as helpful and supportive.
In the area of genetic risk, Dr. Miller has found that high risk women who undergo BRCA1/2 testing display specific cognitive profiles that determine their emotional responses to testing, that counseling interventions can enhance adaptive coping among high risk individuals, and that there are specific patterns of communicating test results that facilitate adaptive decision making and family function.
Books
Diefenbach, M. A., Miller, S. M. & Bowen, D. J. (Eds) (2016). Handbook of Health Decision Science. Springer Publications, 233 Spring Street, New York, NY 10001. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-3486-7
Miller, S.M., Bowen, D., Croyle, R. & Rowland, J. (Eds.) (2008). Handbook of Cancer Control and Behavioral Science: A Resource for Researchers, Practitioners, and Policy Makers. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. (Foreword by Dr. David Abrams) https://doi.org/10.1037/14499-000
Miller, S.M., McDaniel, S., Rolland, J., & Feetham, S. (Eds.) (2006). Individuals, Families & the New Era of Genetics: Biopsychosocial Perspectives. New York: Norton Publications. (Foreword by Dr. Francis Collins) https://doi.org/10.1097/NMD.0b013e3181572ba3
Samaroff, A., Lewis, M., & Miller, S.M. (Eds.) (2000). Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology. (2nd Edition) New York: Plenum Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-4163-9
Lewis, M. & Miller, S.M. (Eds.) (1990). Handbook of Developmental Psychopathology. (1st Edition). New York: Plenum Press. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-7142-
This Fox Chase professor participates in the Undergraduate Summer Research Fellowship.
Learn more about Research Volunteering.
Patient comments