Linda Fleisher, PhD, MPH

Dr. Linda Fleisher is an Associate Research Professor leading health disparities and health communications research and Co-Director of the NCI’s Region 4 Geographic Management Program (GMaP). Her research focuses on the intersection of implementation science, health disparities, health communication interventions, digital health and innovation. During her initial tenure at Fox Chase (1984-2013), she was the Senior Director and ultimately Principal Investigator of the NCI’s Cancer Information Service (1993-2010), Co-Director of the CIS Research Consortium Intervention & Development Core (2005-2010), Founding Director of Fox Chase’s Community Outreach and Resource Education Center (2000-2013) and Co-Director of the NCI’s Region 4 GMaP program (2010-present). An important distinction among these initiatives is the integration and connection between programmatic development, stakeholder engagement and practice-based research. She has utilized her training in public health to work in collaboration with racial and the ethnic minority communities, local, state and federal public health organizations, and other professional organizations to implement and evaluate evidence-based programs in real world settings. Dr. Fleisher’s training in health education and health communications has been instrumental in the development and testing of a variety of patient and provider interventions using both traditional and technology based approaches. Dr. Fleisher also participated in the NCI Mentored training in Implementation Science, served as a Co-I on a number of implementation studies and is continuing her research involving integration of evidence-based research into practice.

Dr. Fleisher, recently rejoined the Fox Chase faculty (2019), after a six-year position at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s Research Institute and adjunct research professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. During this time Dr. Fleisher expanded her expertise in implementation of digital health in practice, development of digital health interventions, and academic entrepreneurship. She was co-director of the mHealth Research Affinity Group and research liaison to the Office of Digital Health. During this time, she continued as adjunct faculty at Fox Chase advancing her research with health disparities, clinical trials, and the GMaP cancer disparities research network.

She is a strong collaborator, working closely with colleagues to address health disparities, while integrating both digital health and implementation science into research. She participates in national level organizations focused on patient navigation leveraging her experience with her patient navigation demonstration project and statewide navigator network.

Dr. Fleisher has won the prestigious awards, such as ATECAR Steering Committee Award, George Bennett Dissertation Fellowship, and NCI Mentored Training in Dissemination and Implementation Science. She has published almost 100 peer reviewed papers, held numerous grants (NCI, NSF, PA Department of Health, industry), mentored undergraduate and graduate students, and serves in many editorial capacities. She currently serves on a number of national leadership groups in patient navigation and health disparities, as well as locally in public health and public education.

Dr. Fleisher's current projects and research include:

• The MyCareCompass Evaluation: MyCareCompass is a service oriented pilot project that provides real time patient education utilizing a third-party platform and specific EHR data points. Dr. Fleisher’s lab is working to determine if it is feasible and can be integrated at Fox Chase.
• The CAPE Platform Evaluation: This evaluation is examining provider and NSCLC patient perceptions of the CAPE platform for patient education on lung cancer and genomic testing, preparation for shared treatment decision making and implementation in diverse oncology settings.
• NCI Funded Tobacco Treatment Program: In response to the NCI Moonshot Initiative for the expansion of the Cancer Center Cessation Initiative (C3I) to develop tobacco cessation treatment capacity and infrastructure for cancer patients, Fox Chase has been awarded funding to expand the tobacco program at Fox Chase. Dr. Fleisher serves as a Co-Lead on this initiative. GMaP Region 4 Program: A national program supporting underrepresented researchers in their career development. Dr. Fleisher is the Co-Director of this National program.