Warren Alpert Foundation Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Professor of Behavioral and Social Sciences

Overview

A. Rani Elwy is a health psychologist, health services researcher and an implementation scientist and Founding Director of the Brown Research on Implementation and Dissemination to Guide Evidence Use (BRIDGE) Program, which fosters the translation, spread, and scale-up of evidence-based practices into routine clinical and community-based care in Rhode Island and nationally. Dr. Elwy's reserarch examines patients’ access to and uptake of behavioral health care; the effectiveness and implementation of complementary and integrative health services for treating mental health disorders and pain; and crisis and risk communication between patients, families, providers and health systems.

Building on a decade of research, Dr. Elwy created a health system-wide Disclosure Support Program, to increase transparent and open communication in health care, based on evidence-based communication practices. She has also led national and global improvement science initiatives to create vaccine acceptance communication strategies. Dr. Elwy was appointed to The White House Science and Technology Policy "Building Trust and Designing for Health Behavior Uptake" workgroup of the Steering Committee for Pandemic Innovation; her work was featured in its first American Pandemic Preparedness Plan in 2022.

During academic year 2024-25, Dr. Elwy served as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow in the Washington, D.C. office of U.S. Senator Patty Murray (WA). Through this program, coordinated by the National Academy of Medicine, Dr. Elwy brought research evidence into work with Senator Murray's health team to draft hearing and meeting memos, talking points, vote recommendations, public heath updates, oversight reports, legislation, and appropriations report language.

Dr. Elwy is also a Class of 2024 Presidential Leadership Scholar, a program that brings together bold and principled leaders who are committed to facing critical challenges, both at home and around the world, and who are interested in exploring lessons learned during the administrations of George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Lyndon B. Johnson.

Dr. Elwy is an elected Fellow of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, and the recipient of a VA Research Career Scientist Award.

Brown Affiliations

Research Areas

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