Christine M. Gunn

Christine Gunn, PhD, is an assistant professor of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. She also serves as the health equity liaison to the Community Outreach and Engagement Program of the Dartmouth Cancer Center.

Dr. Gunn leads a community-engaged program of research focused on risk communication, decision-making, and the utilization of evidence-based care. Our studies investigate how patients and providers negotiate the experience of being at risk for cancer and how risk communication interventions impact the utilization of health services. One specific example of this work is designing and implementing a decision aid for breast cancer screening, with an emphasis on optimizing for populations with limited health literacy and those exposed to environmental risks. Dr. Gunn has received national attention for documenting how state-level dense breasts notification policies do not meet population literacy needs, and the impact they have on both patients and providers. Other areas of interest include cancer survivorship care, patient navigation, emerging cancer screening technologies and policy, and patient-partnered research methods.