Mara A. Schonberg, MD, MPH
Dr. Mara A. Schonberg
Research Concentrations
- Patient Decision-making
- Women's Health
- Gerontology
Contact Information
Professional Biography
Dr. Schonberg's research focuses on improving the quality and outcomes of older women's decision-making around breast cancer screening and treatment. High quality decision-making around mammography screening for older women requires consideration of their life expectancy, breast cancer risk, and preferences. Much of Dr. Schonberg's work has aimed to better understand each of these key factors in older women's screening decisions. To help clinicians and patients estimate life expectancy, she developed and validated an index to predict mortality within 10 years for older adults. This index was featured in a JAMA systematic review and is available at www.eprognosis.org where it has been accessed thousands of times. Working with colleagues at the University of California San Francisco, she also developed a free mobile application to help patients and clinicians consider patient life expectancy in cancer screening decisions (ePrognosis: Cancer Screening). To better understand late-life risk factors for breast cancer, with support from an NIA R01, she developed a model to estimate 5-year risk of post-menopausal breast cancer risk that takes into account women's health behaviors and competing mortality risks. She has also developed a promising decision aid to help women >75 years with decision-making around mammography screening and is testing the efficacy of this decision aid in a large cluster randomized controlled trial as part of an NCI R01. In recognition of her work, in 2016, Dr. Schonberg received the American Geriatrics Society Outstanding Scientific Achievement for Clinical Investigation Award and in 2015 she received the Clinician Investigator of the Year Award from the New England Region of the Society of General Internal Medicine.
Current Research Support
View Dr. Schonberg's professional research networking profile at Harvard Catalyst.
Selected Peer-Reviewed Publications
View Dr. Schonberg's publication history at PubMed Author Search.