Emily Elstad

As a senior researcher at AIR, Emily Elstad leads teams in conducting health behavior and health services research projects. Dr. Elstad is an expert in patient-provider communication and qualitative and mixed methods. Her research has focused on understanding and optimizing patient-provider decision making, including health information seeking and receipt of conflicting and misinformation; increasing the appropriate use of clinical preventive services; and improving the transparency of research for patients and consumers. Dr. Elstad is skilled in data collection and analysis of in-depth and cognitive interview data; content analysis; message testing; systematic literature reviews; and measure and survey development. 

Dr. Elstad currently leads a qualitative study of healthcare providers’ perceptions of and experiences with health misinformation for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). She also oversees the Support of Transparency Efforts by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) project for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, which reviews and analyzes public comments on the USPSTF’s draft research plans, systematic evidence reviews, and recommendation statements. Dr. Elstad also oversees the development of plain language summaries of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute’s (PCORI’s) funded research and dissemination and implementation projects for the PCOR Translation Center. Previously, Dr. Elstad led formative qualitative research towards the development of patient-reported outcomes measures of Temporomandibular Joint Disorders and profound vision loss for the FDA.