Angelo Volandes, M.D., M.P.H.


Associate Professor of Medicine
Harvard Medical School
Physician Investigator (NonCl)
General Internal Medicine, Mass General Research Institute
advance care planning; cardiopulmonary resuscitation; decision making; dementia; patient preference; terminal care; videotape recording

Angelo Volandes, MD, MPH, is a practicing internal medicine physician in the Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Medicine and a junior faculty member at Harvard Medical School. He is a Harvard College and Yale Medical School graduate.

Dr. Volandes continues his work of exploring the role of visual media in medical decision making and is lending his expertise to efforts surrounding Advance Care Planning (ACP), the process by which patients plan for future medical care under circumstances of impaired decision-making. One of his research questions is determining whether, as part of the ACP process, patients can realistically imagine future health states which include difficult and uncomfortable hypothetical scenarios.

His recent ACP research was published in the Archives of Internal Medicine on April 23 in an article titled, Using Video Images of Dementia in Advance Care Planning." His study compared the preferences of patients after seeing a video depiction of a patient with advanced stage dementia, to those who received a verbal description of that health state. Results show that the use of video engages and allows patients to envision future health states in a manner not captured with verbal communication.

Dr. Volandes simultaneously  completed research fellowships in medical ethics at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. He completed his Masters degree in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health in Clinical Effectiveness. He is an active member of the Ethics Committee in the Partners HealthCare system.

avolandes@partners.org
6172436345

Staniford Street #50
50 Staniford Street
Boston, MA 02114