Allyson C. Bontempo, Ph.D. (she/her/hers)

Faculty Affiliate
Center for Prevention Science
Rutgers University
[email protected]

Member
Patient Engagement Committee
Community Improving Diagnosis in Medicine

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Welcome.

I am a Faculty Affiliate with the Center for Prevention Science within the School of Social Work at Rutgers University. I completed a T32 postdoctoral fellowship at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in January 2026. I hold an M.A. and Ph.D. in Health Communication from Rutgers University, prior to which I completed 40 Ph.D. credits in Clinical Psychology from Nova Southeastern University. For my undergraduate education, I received a B.S. in Psychology and English/Writing from Sacred Heart University. I consider myself interdisciplinary and believe in taking a holistic, biopsychosocial approach to understanding health communication-related phenomena.

​My research focuses on improving patient experience. My work targets two areas crucial to patient experience: diagnostic error and the patient-clinician relationship. My work seeks to better understand how patient relationships with clinicians shape the patient experience, particularly around issues of diagnosis. Learn more about my program of research here.

Please feel free to connect with me if you are a student (undergraduate, masters, Ph.D., M.D.), postdoc/fellow, junior or senior researcher, clinician, patient, or patient advocate. You can email me at [email protected].

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In the spotlight!

Hear me discuss my take on invalidation in healthcare on The Chemical Sensitivity Podcast.

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