A. Rani Elwy
Profiles

Rani Elwy, PhD

Adjunct Associate Professor, Health Law, Policy & Management - Boston University School of Public Health

(617) 358-2056
relwy@bu.edu
Talbot - 265 W
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Biography

Dr. A. Rani Elwy, PhD is a health psychologist, health services researcher and implementation scientist who examines Veterans’ access to mental health care and communication between patients, families and providers.Dr. Elwy is also an Investigator at the Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR), a VA Health Services Research and Development Center of Innovation, based at the Boston and Bedford VA Medical Centers. At CHOIR, she directs the Health Communications Research focus area, and within the VA Healthcare System, she has spearheaded the "Disclosure Technical Assistance and Support Program", a communication program developed from health services research evidence and implementation science strategies. Now funded by VA Clinical Operations, Dr. Elwy and her colleagues provide verbal and written communication expertise to facilities needing to disclose information about healthcare to patients, families, employees and the public.

Specific projects as Principal Investigator include examining surgeons’ communication with patients and families about unanticipated surgical events and the impact on this on surgeons’ well-being and patients’ trust in VA; investigating and improving large-scale adverse event disclosures in the VA; predicting Veterans’ treatment seeking for a new episode of depression from their illness perceptions; and establishing an evidence-base for complementary and alternative medicine as first-line treatments for Veterans with depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. In 2012-2014, Dr. Elwy was a fellow with the NIMH- and VA- funded Implementation Research Institute, under the direction of Professor Enola Proctor. A new avenue of research resulting from this fellowship involves examining social networks of providers to better understand where and how provider behavior change may occur in an organization.

From 2015-2017, Dr. Elwy served as the Director of the MPH Certificate in Program Management. Dr. Elwy also teaches a MPH course called Healthcare Delivery Systems: Issues and Innovations (PM755) and a PhD/DrPH/MS course on Research Theory and Design (PH842). She advises many MPH, MS and PhD students in the Health Law, Policy and Management department and the Health Services Research program.

Education

  • King's College London, PhD Field of Study: Psychology
  • London School of Economics and Political Science, MS Field of Study: Psychology
  • University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, BA Field of Study: Psychology

Websites

Publications

  • Published on 11/1/2025

    McQuaid EL, Barker D, Chen ES, Coutinho MT, Cushman GK, Drew L, Elwy AR, Esteban CA, Jandasek BN, Kopel SJ, Pearlman D, Seifer R, Vivier P, Koinis-Mitchell D. Addressing Pediatric Asthma Disparities through RI-AIR's Community Approach: A Randomized Trial. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2025 Nov; 22(11):1709-1719. PMID: 40569168.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 9/1/2025

    Gu M, Martinez RG, Parent H, Marshall BDL, Berk J, Elwy AR, Chan PA, Tao J. Integrating HIV prevention services into care settings for people with opioid use disorder (OUD): a study protocol for implementation strategy development and modeling. Implement Sci Commun. 2025 Sep 01; 6(1):93. PMID: 40887661.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 7/29/2025

    Smith DG, Duarte-Velez Y, Chen ES, Bueno M, Elwy AR, Sarkar IN. Barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 testing and vaccination: a qualitative focus group study among Rhode Island's Latine/Hispanic community. Front Health Serv. 2025; 5:1473375. PMID: 40800074.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 7/28/2025

    Gillmeyer KR, Shusterman S, Rinne ST, Elwy AR, Wiener RS. Gaps in access to pulmonary hypertension care and opportunities for improvement: a multi-site qualitative study. BMC Pulm Med. 2025 Jul 28; 25(1):355. PMID: 40721744.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 6/20/2025

    Arnold T, Giorlando KK, Barnett AP, Gaudiano BA, Antonaccio CM, Elwy AR, Patrick Edet P, Ward LM, Whiteley L, Bailey S, Rogers BG, Leigland A, Rusley JC, Brown LK. Acceptance-Based Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Intervention (ACTPrEP) to Engage Young Black Men Who Have Sex With Men in the Southern United States: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. JMIR Res Protoc. 2025 Jun 20; 14:e65921. PMID: 40540736.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 6/2/2025

    Smith DG, Cancilliere MK, Hayes TM, Elwy AR, Sarkar IN. "They fell through the cracks:" caregiver perspectives on the difficulties of COVID-19 implementation transitions for children and youth with special healthcare needs (CYSHCN). Front Pediatr. 2025; 13:1440680. PMID: 40530181.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 6/1/2025

    Gillmeyer KR, Rinne ST, Rucci JM, Klings ES, Elwy AR, Wiener RS. Factors Associated with Referral to Expert Providers among Patients with Pulmonary Hypertension. Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2025 Jun; 22(6):838-845. PMID: 39932507.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 5/20/2025

    Roncarati JS, Byrne T, Kertesz SG, Elwy AR, Xu CX, Pimentel CB, Wiener RS. Lung Cancer Screening Offers and Low-Dose Computed Tomography Completion Among Veterans Experiencing Homelessness. J Gen Intern Med. 2025 May 20. PMID: 40394437.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 5/16/2025

    Pendergast J, Mull H, Shin M, Engle R, Elwy AR, Strymish J, Golenbock S, Hederstedt K, Ostrow R, Goetz MB, Hawn M, Branch-Elliman W. Sustainability and spread of best practices for peri-operative antimicrobial stewardship following discontinuation of mandatory public reporting: perceptions from the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America research network. Infect Control Hosp Epidemiol. 2025 May 16; 1-6. PMID: 40376808.

     Read At: PubMed
  • Published on 3/13/2025

    Lu Z, Stencel O, Liu W, Vasileiou E, Xu HC, Pandey P, Stachura P, Elwy A, Tsombal A, Mai AS, Auer F, Morcos MNF, Seidl M, Koziel S, Bruch PM, Dietrich S, Elitzur S, Hartmann G, Lang KS, Janssen S, Fischer U, Bhatia S, Lang PA, Borkhardt A, Hauer J, Pandyra AA. Immune training enhances anti-viral responses and improves outcomes in Pax5-/+ mice susceptible to chronic infection. EMBO Mol Med. 2025 Apr; 17(4):696-721. PMID: 40082582.

     Read At: PubMed

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