Program Dir
National Cancer Institute NIH
Wen-ying Sylvia Chou, PhD, MPH, is Program Director in the Health Communication and Informatics Research Branch at the NCI, where she oversees a portfolio of research on new media, patient-provider communication, and mixed methods research. As a sociolinguist, she has published analyses of patient-provider interactions, illness narratives, and social media use in the US. She is continuing several multidisciplinary research projects on the role of new and social media on health communication, specifically documenting health-related Internet use across the population. At the NCI, she is leading the effort to develop funding initiatives to examine the changing communication landscape brought on by social/participative media, including implications on health disparities. Dr. Chou came to the HCIRB from the Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program at the NCI (2007–2010). Information National Trends Survey, patient-provider communication about colorectal cancer screening, cross-cultural communication in survey design. Her doctoral dissertation examines end-of-life discourse through an ethnography and linguistic analysis of interactions between cancer patients and caregivers. She has maintained an active role in community-based organizations, including in the Chinese American community.