Heather Orom
PhD
Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
Director of Graduate Studies, PhD Program
Associate Professor
Research Topics
Understanding and identifying strategies for eliminating health disparities; dimensions of illness risk perception, including uncertainty about risk perception and its implication for health behavior and risk perception measurement; determinants of prostate cancer treatment decision making and wellbeing in prostate cancer survivorship.
Selected Publications
- Orom, H., Underwood, W., II, & Biddle, C. (2016). Emotional distress increases the likelihood of receiving surgery among men with localized prostate cancer. Journal of Urology
- Orom, H., *Biddle, C., Underwood, W., III, Nelson, C. J., & Homish, D. L. (2016). What is a 'good' treatment decision? Decisional control, knowledge, treatment decision-making, and quality of life in men with clinically localized prostate cancer. Medical Decision Making, 36, 714-725.
- Orom, H. (2016). Nativity and perceived healthcare quality. Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health, 18(3):636-643.
- Orom, H., Nelson, C. J., Underwood, W., III, Homish, D. L., & Kapoor, D. (2015). Factors associated with emotional distress in newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients. Psycho- Oncology, 24,:1416-22.
- Orom, H., Underwood, W. III, Homish, D.L., Kiviniemi, M. T., Homish, G.G., Nelson, C. J., & Schiffman, Z. (2014). Prostate cancer survivors' beliefs about screening and treatment decision-making experiences in an era of controversy. Psycho-Oncology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1002/pon.3721.
- O'Quin, K. E., Semalulu, T., & Orom, H. (In Press). Elder and caregiver solutions to improve medication adherence. Health Education Research.
- Orom, H. O'Quin, K. E., Reilly, S., & Kiviniemi, M. T. (2014). Perceived cancer risk and risk attributions among African American residents of a low-income, predominantly African American neighborhood. Ethnicity and Health, 1-14. Advance online publication. doi:10.1080 /13557858.2014.950197.
- Cline, R. J. W., Orom, H., Chung, J. E. & Hernandez, T. (2014). The role of social toxicity in responses to a slowly-evolving environmental disaster: The case of amphibole asbestos exposure in Libby, Montana, USA. American Journal of Community Psychology, 54, 12-27.
- Orom, H., Homish, D. L., Homish, G. G., & Underwood, W., III. (2014). Quality of physician-patient relationships is associated with the influence of physician treatment recommendations among prostate cancer patients who chose active surveillance. Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations, 32, 396-402.
- Orom, H., Semalulu, T., & Underwood, W., III. (2013). The social and learning environments experienced by underrepresented minority medical students: A narrative review. Academic Medicine, 88, 1765-1777.
Representative Student Projects
- Developing an integrative framework for studying and intervening in social determinants of health
- Transforming a prostate cancer scare into a teachable moment for promoting men's health
- How are we treating underrepresented minority students in medical school?: A systematic review of the literature