Christine Rini, PhD
Director, Cancer Survivorship Institute
Research Program
Cancer-Focused Research
Dr. Rini is a social/health psychologist conducting research on factors influencing patientsâ behavioral and psychosocial responses to health-related challenges. She is particularly interested in interpersonal processes that reveal the various ways that partners, family members, and peers can influence patientsâ health decisions, behaviors, and outcomes. However, she believes that it is critical to study effects of these interpersonal factors in conjunction with patientsâ medical status, dispositional factors, and the broader social context (e.g., socioeconomic status and cultural factors). Her work has addressed challenges related to pregnancy, chronic pain (e.g., in osteoarthritis and cancer populations), clinical and public health applications of genomic sequencing and genetic testing, and cancer control and survivorship. She is also committed to translating research findings into behavioral and psychosocial interventions, including those that are delivered using technology (e.g., âmHealthâ interventions) to optimize their cost-effectiveness, scalability, and accessibility. For example, as PI of a NIAMS R01, she led development of a program to deliver pain coping skills training as an automated, web-based intervention and evaluated its efficacy in a randomized controlled trials. She is now extending that work to address pain in people with cancer. She is currently PI of an NCI R01 evaluating a behavioral intervention for cancer patients undergoing bone marrow/stem cell transplant and co-PI of a NHGRI study investigating use of genomic (exome) sequencing for diagnosis in a diverse population of children with suspected genetic conditions. Her work in genomics focuses on investigating patient understanding of and responses to public health and clinical genomic sequencing as well as development of measurement approaches to advance research in the field. Her research is enriched by specific training in research methods and theories, measurement and psychometrics, statistical techniques, and the conduct of randomized controlled trials.