Amanda McArthur Hernandez, MA, PhD

Amanda McArthur, PhD, is an Instructor of Medicine in the Division of General Internal Medicine (GIM) at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine whose research focuses on clinician-patient communication. She received her PhD in sociology from the University of California, Los Angeles, where her training focused on medical sociology and conversation analysis; she also holds a master’s degree in linguistics from California State University, Northridge. Dr. McArthur completed a postdoctoral fellowship in GIM at Johns Hopkins working with Mary Catherine Beach, MD, MPH, and joined faculty in 2026. She is a Next Generation Scholar with the Johns Hopkins University Center for Innovative Medicine.

Dr. McArthur’s research uses conversation analysis, alongside other qualitative and mixed methods, to examine real-world clinical encounters. She focuses on difficult conversations, such as those about diagnostic testing, medication nonadherence, and musculoskeletal pain, studying what makes them challenging for clinicians and patients and how they can be improved through practical, evidence-based recommendations. Drawing on her training in the social sciences and linguistics, Dr. McArthur collaborates across disciplines and clinical settings, with a particular focus on primary care, including work in diabetes and HIV care. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Mid-Atlantic Center for Cardiometabolic Health, the Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine, and the Johns Hopkins University Pivot Program.

Dr. McArthur has received several awards for her research and teaching, including the Mack Lipkin, Sr. Scientific Presentation Award from the Society of General Internal Medicine, the Graduate Student Paper Award from the American Sociological Association’s Section on Conversation Analysis and Ethnomethodology, and the Excellence in Teaching Award from the UCLA Department of Sociology.

Dr. McArthur is an associate editor for the Journal of General Internal Medicine and the inaugural chair of the Conversation Analysis Special Interest Group within the International Association for Communication in Healthcare.

Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research

Institute for Humanizing Medicine - Center for Innovative Medicine

Primary Care Consortium

clinician-patient communication, communication in healthcare

• McArthur A, Ahmad A, Links AR, Warner KR, Drew P, Beach MC, Saha S. How words discredit: A taxonomy of stigmatizing language in the electronic health record. Patient education and counseling. 2026 Feb 5:109520.
• McArthur A. When patients demur: Resisting diagnostic closure in US primary care. Social Science & Medicine. 2024 Mar 1;344:116619.
• McArthur A. Pain and the collision of expertise in primary care physical exams. Discourse Studies. 2019 Oct;21(5):522-39.
• Heritage J, McArthur A. The diagnostic moment: A study in US primary care. Social Science & Medicine. 2019 May 1;228:262-71.
• McArthur A. Getting pain on the table in primary care physical exams. Social Science & Medicine. 2018 Mar 1;200:190-8.

• Next Generation Scholar Award, Johns Hopkins Center for Innovative Medicine, 2026-2027
• Mack Lipkin, Sr. Associate Member Scientific Presentation Award, Society of General Internal Medicine, 2026
• Humanities & Social Sciences Scholarship, Academy of Communication in Healthcare, 2019
• Best Graduate Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association Section on Conversation Analysis & Ethnomethodology, 2018
• Department of Sociology Excellence in Teaching Award, University of California Los Angeles, 2018
• Fulbright Fellowship - Sofia, Bulgaria, 2009-2010

• Society of General Internal Medicine
• International Association for Communication in Healthcare
• International Society for Conversation Analysis
• American Sociological Association

• Associate Editor, Journal of General Internal Medicine
• Chair, Conversation Analysis Special Interest Group - International Association for Communication in Healthcare