Janice L. Hanson, PhD, EdS, MH

Professor of Medicine, Division of Medical Education
Director of Medical Education Research Unit (MERU), Office of Education
Director of Education Scholarship Development, Office of Education

Dr. Hanson completed her PhD in Education at the University of Michigan in 1984. After teaching and doing research in Special Education at the George Washington University with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Dr. Hanson began her role as Director of Research and Evaluation at the Institute for Family-Centered Care, where she developed a group of parent-advisors to the Department of Defense system of services for individuals with special needs and their families. In 1999, Dr. Hanson joined the faculty at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. With funding from the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation and the Health Resources Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Hanson and Col. Virginia Randall developed a group of patient- and family-advisors to the medical school curriculum. Together they developed and taught activities on patient- and family-centered care across the four-year medical school curriculum.

Dr. Hanson joined the faculty of the University of Colorado’s School of Medicine in 2011, and subsequently joined the faculty of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis in 2019. She is Professor Emerita of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Adjunct Professor of Medicine and Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University. At the national level, Dr. Hanson has served on the board of the American Academy on Physician and Patient (now the Academy on Communication in Healthcare), as the co-chair of the Research and Scholarship Task Force for the Council on Medical Student Education in Pediatrics, as co-chair of the Qualitative Research Special Interest Group for the Academic Pediatric Association (APA), and as co-director of the Research Scholars Program of the APA. She has developed and led many workshops and symposia at national and international meetings, including many sessions on assessment in health professional education. Dr. Hanson’s areas of expertise include patient- and family-centered care, patient/physician communication, curriculum development, learner assessment and evaluation in health professional education, humanities in medicine, research and scholarship in education, and qualitative research methods.

Select publications

1. Hanson JL, Balmer DF, Giardino AP. Qualitative research methods for medical educators. Academic Pediatrics. 2011;11(5):375-86.
2. Hanson JL, Rosenberg AA, Lane JL. Narrative descriptions should replace grades and numerical ratings for clinical performance in medical education in the United States. Frontiers in Psychology. 2013;4:668.
3. Lane JL, Soep JB, Hanson JL. Narrative Derived From Medical Student Reflection in Action: Lessons Learned and Implications for Assessment. Academic Pediatrics. 2018;18(3):354-6.
4. Tewksbury LR, Carter C, Konopasek L, Sanguino SM, Hanson JL. Evaluation of a National Pediatric Subinternship Curriculum Implemented Through Individual Learning Plans. Academic Pediatrics. 2018;18(2):208-13.
5. Paul CR, Ryan MS, Beck Dallaghan GL, Jirasevijinda T, Quigley PD, Hanson JL, Khidir AM, Petershack J, Jackson J, Tewksbury L, Rocha MEM. Collecting validity evidence: a hands-on workshop for medical education assessment instruments. MedEdPORTAL. 2019;15:10817.