Cliff Coleman, M.D., M.P.H.

  • Professor of Family Medicine, School of Medicine
  • Clinical Thread Director for Professionalism, Ethics, and Communication, Office of the Dean, School of Medicine
  • Doris and Mark Storms Chair in Compassionate Communication, Center for Ethics in Health Care, School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Cliff Coleman is a family doctor who specializes in caring for patients with complex medical conditions as well as meeting the growing health needs of underserved populations. He says his patients, their families and his coworkers make him feel privileged to come to work each day.

A national expert whose research focuses in the fields of health literacy and doctor-patient communication, Dr. Coleman also provides training for health care professionals and medical students in these areas. Other topics include culturally responsive care, professionalism and ethics.

Dr. Coleman grew up in Eugene, Oregon. He lives in Portland with his wife, two children and their family dog. In his spare time, he enjoys skiing, traveling, hiking and the arts.

“I believe everyone has the same basic right to receive high quality easy-to-understand health information” - Cliff Coleman, M.D., M.P.H.

Education and training

  • Degrees

    • A.B., 1991, Dartmouth College
    • M.D., 2000, Stanford University
    • M.P.H., 2004, Portland State University

  • Residency

    • Family Medicine residency - OHSU - 2000-2003
    • Public Health & Preventive Medicine residency - OHSU - 2000-2004

  • Certifications

    • Family Medicine

Memberships and associations:

  • Advanced Cardiac Life Support

Areas of interest

  • Health literacy, health communication, culturally responsive care, medical education, underrepresented minority physicians

Publications

Elsevier pure profile

Selected publications

  • Disher N, Dieckmann NF, Case JR, Rubim F, Eden KB, Golden SE, Matlock DD, Coleman C, Lyons KS, Saha S, Slatore CG, Vranas KC, Sullivan DR. Improving lung cancer decision-making using a conversation tool (iDECIDE): a stepped wedge pragmatic clinical trial. Future Oncol. 2025 Mar 18:1-12. doi: 10.1080/14796694.2025.2475733. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 40098532.
  • Donald R Sullivan DR, Dieckmann NF, Franklin H, Matlock DD, Coleman CA, Saha S, Golden SE, Disher NG, Slatore CG, Vranas KC, Hayes S, Lee P, Mudambi L, Eden KB. Improving Decision-Making Encounters in Lung Cancer Treatment (iDECIDE): Feasibility and Acceptability of a Low-Literacy Conversation Tool. CHEST Pulmonary, In press.
  • Burney E, *Arora M, *Gaillard M., *Herzig M, *Lester L, *Park S, Coleman C. “A game-based tool for reducing jargon use by medical trainees.” MedEdPORTAL. 2024;20:11411. https://doi.org/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11411 [among MedEdPORTAL’s top 10 most downloaded publications in 2024]
  • Tsai H-Y, Lee S-Y, Coleman C, Sørensen K, Tsai T-I. "Health Literacy Competency Requirements for Health Professionals: A Delphi Consensus Study in Taiwan." BMC Medical Education. 2024; 24(209). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05198-4
  • Coleman C, Birk S, DeVoe JE. Health Literacy and Systemic Racism: Using Clear Communication to Reduce Health Care Inequities. JAMA Internal Medicine. 2023;183(8):753–754. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.2558
  • Coleman C, *Salcido-Torres, F., Cantone, R.E. (2022). “What Questions Do You Have?” Teaching Medical Students to Use an Open-Ended Phrase for Eliciting Patients’ Questions. HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice, 2022 Jan;6(1):e12-e16. doi: 10.3928/24748307-20211206-01. Epub 2022 Jan 13. PMID: 35025611; PMCID: PMC8758184.
  • Coleman C. Health Literacy and Clear Communication Best Practices for Telemedicine. HLRP: Health Literacy Research and Practice, 2020 Nov 6;4(4):e224-e229. doi: 10.3928/24748307-20200924-01. PMID: 33170288; PMCID: PMC8330439. https://doi.org/10.3928/24748307-20200924-01.

Publications