Mollie A. Ruben, PhD

Research Assistant Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Ruben earned her PhD in psychology at Northeastern University where she developed a strong background in doctor-patient communication, measuring and quantifying nonverbal behavior, creating standardized tests to evaluate physicians’ interpersonal skill, and meta-analysis. Dr. Ruben is a certified and reliable Facial Action Coding System (FACS) and Roter Interaction Analysis (RIAS) coder. Dr. Ruben uses these coding systems to examine the impact of providers’ communication style on patient health outcomes, with a particular interest in ameliorating the physical pain experience for patients. Additionally, Dr. Ruben is interested in doctor-patient communication among sexual minorities or LGBT patients.

Publications

  • Published 12/28/2024

    Stage MA, Creamer MM, Ruben MA. "Having providers who are trained and have empathy is life-saving": Improving primary care communication through thematic analysis with ChatGPT and human expertise. PEC Innov. 2025 Jun; 6:100371. PMID: 39866208.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 11/30/2024

    Shepard EC, Ruben M, Weyandt LL. Emotion Recognition Accuracy Among Individuals With ADHD: A Systematic Review. J Atten Disord. 2025 Feb; 29(3):174-194. PMID: 39614669.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/29/2024

    Ruben MA, Stosic MD. Documenting Race and Gender Biases in Pain Assessment and a Novel Intervention Designed to Reduce Biases. J Pain. 2024 Sep; 25(9):104550. PMID: 38692397.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/3/2024

    Daniali H, Ruben MA, Aslaksen PM, Fiskum C, Kaptchuk TJ, Flaten MA. The Effect of Singular Nonverbal Behaviours of Experimenters on Pain Reports. J Pain Res. 2024; 17:1345-1360. PMID: 38584862.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 12/7/2023

    Ruben MA, Stosic MD. Preserving privacy in the era of openness: Commentary on open science requirements for identifiable data in psychological science journals. Am Psychol. 2024 Apr; 79(3):463-465. PMID: 38059977.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 44 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Websites

Education

  • Northeastern University, PhD
  • Northeastern University, MA
  • Franklin & Marshall College, BA

View all profiles