VA Honors Rani Elwy for Public Health Communication Research on Patient Safety.

A. Rani Elwy, a BU School of Public Health assistant professor of health policy and management, was honored with a certificate of appreciation for her work leading a study investigating how best to communicate large-scale adverse events to veterans and staff of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

Elwy was the principal investigator on “Veteran and Staff Perceptions of VHA Large Scale Adverse Event Communications,” part of the Study of the Communication of Adverse Large Scale Events (SCALE) project funded by the VA Health Services Research and Development Service. SPH collaborators include Barbara Bokhour, an assistant professor of health policy and management, and Allen Gifford, a professor of health policy and management.

“In SCALE, we are working with the Principal Deputy Under Secretary for Health and VA’s Office of Public Health to determine the most effective way of disclosing large scale adverse event information to patients, families and employees — in a way that decreases anxiety and distress and encourages confidence and trust in the VA,” Elwy explained.

“We are conducting four interrelated studies examining the impact of media analyses on the public’s perceptions; a qualitative interview study of local, regional and national leaders, employees, patients, family members and congressional staff involved with disclosures at nine different VA facilities; a large administrative database study to examine unintended consequences in healthcare utilization following disclosures; and an experimental vignette survey where we are building on what we’ve learned from the previous three studies and crafting and testing messages that may be used for future disclosures.”