Darin B. Zahuranec, MD, MSC is a Professor of Neurology at the University of Michigan Medical School. He is an expert in decision-making around end-of-life care and served as an author on the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association Scientific Statement on palliative and end-of life care in stroke. He is a superbly trained quantitative and qualitative scientist having received a Master’s Degree in Clinical Research Design and Statistical Analysis from the University of Michigan. He has substantial pragmatic experience in the material and methods relevant to this program. His research interests include clinical decision making for cardiovascular disease and stroke.
Dr. Zahuranec’s current research activities focus on physician and family decision-making on life-sustaining treatments in severe stroke, outcomes in surrogate decision-makers for individuals with neurological illness, and epidemiology of intracerebral hemorrhage. Most recently, he has helped construct the science and protocol of the MI Decision Aid Pilot Studies. He will serve as co-PI alongside Dr. Levine on the upcoming MI Decision Aid Study grant that will be submitted in November 2023.
Dr. Zahuranec’s other National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded research has included both a K23 and an R01 to study end-of-life decisions in adults with stroke. In these studies, he conducted qualitative interviews and quantitative surveys of surrogate decision makers and physicians to better understand clinical decision making in adults with ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. He has also recently completed a study to develop and pilot test a web-based decision support tool for surrogate decision makers of patients recently hospitalized with stroke.