Mission & Team

Facilitating communication and decision-making for people with cancer

The guiding principle of the Cancer Care Road Map project is to reduce the hardship of being diagnosed with, treated for, and as often happens, dying from cancer.

We are a multidisciplinary team of doctors, researchers, and web experts. Our principal goal is to develop, test, and disseminate interactive web-based communication and decision-making resources to support people with cancer, caregivers, and clinicians in developing treatment and care plans consistent with personalized goals and informed preferences.

Larry Dean Cripe, MD

Founder and principal investigator

Dr Cripe is a professor of medicine in the Division of Hematology/Oncology at the IU School of Medicine and a member of the IU Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center. He specializes in the care of adults with blood cancers.

In addition to leading the multidisciplinary Cancer Care Road Map project, Dr. Cripe also serves as the editor-in-chief of the NCI PDQ Supportive and Palliative Care Board, which maintains evidence-based summaries of topics in supportive and palliative care for health care providers and people with cancer.

He founded the CompleteLife Program at the cancer center. The program provides psychosocial, complementary, and creative arts-based services for individuals with cancer.

Dr. Cripe is a multi-published writer. His essays and poetry have appeared in such publications as the Journal of American Medical Association and the anthology At the End of Life: True Stories about How We Die. He formerly wrote and read Grace Notes, reflections on living with serious illnesses at the end-of-life that were broadcast on the nationally syndicated radio program Sound Medicine.

Meet Dr. Cripe

The 'how we will decide in the future' is often more important to me than 'what are we going to do today?'
Larry Cripe, MD — Hematologist and Founder, Cancer Care Road Map

Ann Cottingham, MA, MAR

Health communications researcher

Ms. Cottingham is director of Research in Health Professions Education and Practice at the IU School of Medicine. Her research focuses on clinician-patient and health care team communication, clinician wellness, and relational organizational change.

At the Regenstrief Institute, Ms. Cottingham works to expand understanding of healthcare team communication related to patients’ deeply held beliefs and values, which are known to influence coping and treatment choices. She has also explored factors that impact clinician satisfaction, engagement, and resilience to identify strategies that facilitate effective healthcare teams and organizations.

Robert Skipworth Comer, MS

Health communications researcher

In addition to his role as lecturer and researcher with the Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering, Mr. Comer works closely with Dr. Cripe and Dr. Cottingham to create the technical infrastructure that underlies the Road Map platform.

His work involves developing websites, databases, and other interactive media to help researchers study health education, symptom management, cancer screening, and other issues.

Former Team Members

Miranda G. Shuler, MSc

Behavioral researcher and project designer

Miranda (she/her) is a graduate of Purdue University Global with a master of science in psychology. With her bachelor’s experience in computer technology, Miranda designs and develops visual aspects for the Cancer Care Road Map Project.

Miranda also applies her master’s experience to research communication between people with cancer and their physicians with the intent of creating a digital mind map of an oncologist's cognitive process. Her goal is to one day obtain a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology and become a researcher and professor of cyberpsychology.

Support the Fill the Gap Fund

Your gift will support research related to the design, development, and testing of the Cancer Care Road Map at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

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