Bio: Rachel Elliott, a 2004-05 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, is an academic pharmacist with a background in hospital pharmacy and doctorate training in health economics. After completing a Ph.D. from Brunel University, she became a clinical lecturer at the University of Manchester and is currently professor of medicines and health at the University of Nottingham's School of Pharmacy. Her research and teaching focus on health economics, and she has obtained, or been part of, grants for both primary and secondary research in anaesthesia, rheumatology, surgery, emergency contraception and medication adherence. Elliott is one of very few pharmacists in the U.K. with training and experience in health economics, and she initiated a research program that applies the most up-to-date and robust health economics research methods to medicines and pharmacy practice.
Placement: Harvard University
Mentors: Dana Gelb Safran, Sc.D.; Stephen Soumerai, Sc.D.
Project: Towards an Understanding of Medication Non-Adherence in the Elderly with Multiple Illnesses
Description: Elliott's study aimed to explore and describe how multiple illnesses affect patients' decisions about adherence, and to identify whether, and how, people trade between medicines or diseases. Twenty community-dwelling seniors were recruited for the study, and a series of interviews were carried out with them over three months on potential factors affecting adherence. These included knowledge and beliefs about their diseases and medications.