The Life Tapes Project

Stanford Research.

The Life Tapes Project.

A five-year NIH-funded research program led by Alison Leigh, MFT.

Alison Leigh served as Clinical Research Director, Principal Investigator, and Doctoral Dissertation Contributor for The Life Tapes Project through Stanford University School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry.

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Alison Leigh, MFT — Stanford research principal investigator

Stanford Research Record

The Life Tapes Project

Stanford University School of Medicine · Department of Psychiatry

Clinical Research Director · Principal Investigator · Doctoral Dissertation Contributor

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The NIH Award

Alison Leigh was awarded a five-year National Institutes of Health research grant for the sustained clinical research period of The Life Tapes Project.

The Research Purpose

The project examined a videotaped life-review intervention for cancer patients and their families, focusing on communication, connection, personal meaning, family legacy, and symbolic immortality.

The Stanford Collaboration

Her work was supervised by and conducted with David Spiegel, MD, Associate Chair of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Director of the Center on Stress and Health, and Medical Director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Alison Leigh’s Work

Research leadership across the full five-year program.

This was not a peripheral contribution. Alison held responsibility across clinical research, human-subjects protocol development, patient work, recruitment, interdisciplinary collaboration, presentation, and publication.

Principal Investigator for The Life Tapes Project, a doctoral dissertation on symbolic immortality.
Developed and implemented study questionnaires approved by the Committee on Human Research.
Conducted confidential personal end-of-life legacy videotapes for cancer patients and their families.
Organized and executed marketing, public relations, fundraising strategies, and promotional material for recruitment.
Maintained and developed collaborative efforts with Stanford University statisticians and psychiatrists.
Co-created, developed, and implemented study questionnaires approved by the Committee on Human Research.
Presented significant results nationwide at medical conventions and local hospitals.
Collaborated with David Spiegel, MD, and interdisciplinary Stanford research colleagues.
Published research findings in peer-reviewed journals and presented at professional conferences.
Clinically managed a caseload of more than 400 patients across the five-year research period.

Research Support & Awards

What the five-year NIH award made possible.

The award supported the continuity required for a sustained clinical research program: questionnaire and protocol development, Committee on Human Research approval, participant recruitment, confidential Life Tape interviews, clinical management of more than 400 patients, interdisciplinary work with Stanford psychiatrists and statisticians, analysis, national presentation, and peer-reviewed publication.

The Life Tapes Project received five-year NIH research support through UCSF and Mount Zion Health Fund-related funding sources. The published research also acknowledges support connected to the Stuart Foundation, the Ernest Rosenbaum Cancer Research Fund of the Mount Zion Health Fund, the El Dorado Fund, and Mount Zion Health Fund.

Alison L. Siegel (is Alison Leigh, MFT).

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