Michael A. Diefenbach PhD

Dr. Diefenbach is a behavioral scientist with a degree in Health/Social Psychology whose research focuses on how patients make treatment decisions under distressing and uncertain medical conditions. He has investigated basic psychological mechanisms of decision making, focusing on individual cognitive and affective factors and their influences on information processing, decisional satisfaction, regret and quality of life. Guided by a self-regulation theoretical framework, Dr. Diefenbach translates and applies basic psychological phenomena into applied patient-focused interventions with the goal of enhancing patient quality of life through the improved decision making and symptom control.

Dr. Diefenbach’s research has been continuously federally funded for over 20 years and has involved a variety of patient populations, including prostate, bladder, and breast cancer patients. In an effort to enhance patient decision making he has developed in-person as well as web-based programs. His Prostate-Interactive Education System (PIES) was one of the first web-based comprehensive and interactive prostate cancer information resources for newly diagnosed prostate cancer patients. In addition, he guided the development of three additional programs: Healing Choices for Prostate Cancer and Healing Choices for Breast Cancer, as well as a web-based resource for prostate cancer survivors (PROGRESS).