Research Interests
Dr. Pignone, a general internist and epidemiologist, studies cancer screening in primary care settings. He holds a career development award from the American Cancer Society. Dr. Pignone's main research interests are in the areas of physician-patient communication about risk and the use of preventive care, particularly colorectal cancer screening.

Recent Accomplishments and Honors
1. Member, US Multi-society Task Force on Colon Cancer Screening 2006

2. Development of the evidence base on colorectal cancer screening for the 3rd US Preventive Services Task Force. Dr. Pignone, along with colleagues at the RTI-UNC Evidence-based Practice Center, conducted a systematic review of colorectal cancer screening that was used as the basis for the 3rd US Preventive Services Task Force recommendations supporting screening. The review was published in Annals of Internal Medicine in 2002.

3. Systematic review of cost-effectiveness analyses on colorectal cancer screening. Dr. Pignone also conducted a systematic review that critically evaluated existing cost-effectiveness models for colorectal cancer screening and attempted to identify areas in which these models agreed or disagreed. The investigators concluded that all forms of screening were cost-effective compared with no screening but that no single form of screening was clearly superior to the others in effectiveness or cost-effectiveness. The results were also published in Annals of Internal Medicine in 2002. Dr. Pignone also helped organize an Institute of Medicine process to bring together researchers who have developed cost-effectiveness models in order to perform collaborative analyses. The results were published by the IOM and formed the basis for an additional Annals of Internal Medicine manuscript.

4. Development and testing of patient decision aids for colorectal cancer screening. Dr. Pignone has developed and tested patient-directed decision aids for colorectal cancer screening. Working with Russ Harris, MD, MPH, he randomized 254 patients to either watch a colon cancer video and receive a targeted brochure or to a control video on auto safety. Subjects who watched the video had a higher intent to ask their providers for screening and had more tests actually ordered. Chart review confirmed a 17% point absolute increase in the proportion of subjects completing colon cancer screening. The results of this study were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2000. Dr. Pignone then refined the decision aid in a new, computer-based modular format and demonstrated similar level of efficacy in a recently published trial in BMC Health Services Research. Dr. Pignone is currently participating in a CDC-funded trial along with Emory University (PI Karen Glanz) to test the combined effect of the decision aid and academic detailing in Aetna Health Plan members.


5. Development of UNC Working Group on Risk, Communication, and Shared Decision Making and the UNC Decision Support Lab. Along with Drs. Carmen Lewis and Stacey Sheridan, Dr. Pignone has helped develop an infrastructure at UNC, for studying patient-physician communication about cancer prevention in primary care. In the past five years, their research group has performed several studies of risk communication or decision aids, including studies examining the effect of different messages on women's interest in mammography from ages 40-49, the information needs of men considering prostate cancer screening, and the ability of patients to interpret numerical information about risk. Recently, they have developed, under the direction of Jennifer Griffith, DrPH, a lab for the testing and development of future decision aids. They are currently conducting several studies in this setting.

Publications
Kim J, Whitney A, Hayter S, Lewis C, Campbell M, Sutherland L, Fowler B, Googe S, McCoy R, Pignone M. Development and initial testing of a computer-based patient decision aid to promote colorectal cancer screening for primary care practice.
BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2005 Nov 28;5:36.

Pignone M, Saha S, Hoerger T, Lohr KN, Teutsch S, Mandelblatt J. Challenges in systematic reviews of economic analyses.
Ann Intern Med. 2005 Jun 21;142(12 Pt 2):1073-9. Review.

Katz ML, James AS, Pignone MP, Hudson MA, Jackson E, Oates V, Campbell MK.Colorectal cancer screening among African American church members: a qualitative and quantitative study of patient-provider communication. BMC Public Health. 2004 Dec 15;4:62.


Katz ML, Sheridan S, Pignone M, Lewis C, Battle J, Gollop C, O'Malley M. Prostate and colon cancer screening messages in popular magazines. J Gen Intern Med. 2004 Aug;19(8):843-8.

Sheridan S, Pignone M, Lewis C. Communicating treatment benefit information to patients: A randomized comparison of patients' understanding of number needed to treat and other common risk formats. J Gen Intern Med. 2003 Nov;18(11):884-92.

Lewis, C, Sheridan S, Felix, C, Pignone M. The effect of framing educational information on screening mammography for women ages 40-49. JGIM 2003 (in press).

Pignone M, Rich M, Berg A, Teutsch S, Lohr K. Screening for colorectal cancer: systematic review for the US Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of Internal Medicine 2002; 137: 132-141.

Pignone M, Saha S, Hoerger T, Mandelblatt J. Cost-effectiveness Analyses of Colorectal Cancer Screening: A Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force. Annals of Internal Medicine 2002; 137: 96-104.

Pignone MP, Levin B. Recent Developments in Colorectal Cancer Screening and Prevention. American Family Physician 2002; 297-302.

Pignone, M, Campbell M, Carl C, Phillips C. Meta-analysis of dietary restriction during fecal occult blood testing. Effective Clinical Practice 2001; 4: 150-156.

Pignone MP, Harris R, Kinsinger L. Videotape-based patient decision aid for colon cancer screening - a randomized trial. Annals of Internal Medicine: 2000; 133 (10): 761-769.

Pignone MP, Bucholtz D, Harris R. Patient preferences for colon cancer screening. Journal of General Internal Medicine 1999; 14 (7): 432-437.

E-mail: pignone@med.unc.edu
Telephone: (919) 966-2276
FAX: (919) 966-2274
Address: 5039 Old Clinic Bldg, CB# 7110 Chapel Hill, NC

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