Dr. Joanna Hart is a pulmonary and critical care physician at the University of Pennsylvania and the Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center. Her research broadly focuses on improving the serious illness experience for patients and families, recognizing that serious illness affects families, not just patients. Dr. Hart has particular research interests in how patients, families, and clinicians communicate with one another, the role families play in supporting patients with serious illnesses, how health systems integrate family members into care and complex, value-sensitive shared decision making. She uses mixed methods, community-engaged research, longitudinal cohort studies, and clinical trials to advance the well-being of patients and their family members. Her clinical and research work often, but not exclusively, focuses on chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and tobacco-related lung disease.
Dr. Hart is the founder and initiative lead of LDI’s Rural Health & Policy Research working group, which seeks to augment Penn’s contributions to multidisciplinary and evidence-based research that will improve the health of rural communities worldwide.
Dr. Hart received her undergraduate degree in sociology from Northwestern University and also completed a certificate program in academic-based community service. She earned her medical degree from the University of Virginia and completed her internal medicine, pulmonary, and critical care training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. She also earned a Masters of Science in Health Policy Research from the University of Pennsylvania.
Dr. Hart is deeply committed to the education of the next generation of physicians and health care leaders, particularly those facing structural barriers to their success in medicine. Dr. Hart proudly lives and works in the diverse West Philadelphia community.
