Christopher Knoepke

Research Description

Dr. Knoepke’s research is focused on improving the inclusion of patients’ individual goals and values in treatment planning decisions, especially complex, emotionally-burdensome, and otherwise challenging decisions, with a particular focus on issues affecting marginalized groups of patients (including women, older and/or multimorbid adults, and patients at risk of suicide). He aims to improve the tools and processes which facilitate communication about treatment options including the elicitation and inclusion of patient values and preferences into treatment planning.

As a Ludeman Family Center for Women's Health Research seed grantee, Dr. Knoepke works in collaboration with Drs. Prateeti Khazanie and Sarah Perman to better understand seeming structural disparities in the reception of lifesaving care, including why women make up only 15-20% of patients in the US who receive ventricular assist devices (VADs), and why women are less likely to receive bystander CPR during an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Using a novel data gathering strategies, and mixed qualitative and quantitative research methods, we will describe social support  and popular perception differences pertinent to these two questions. By understanding social factors which disadvantage women societally, as well as potential bias occurring within medical evaluation processes, we will be able to develop more standardized and equitable systems for 1) evaluating women and men for advanced heart failure therapies, like VADs, and 2) training lay rescuers.