Harkness Project Title: What Is the Relative Importance of Factors that Influence Patients' Decisions to Adhere to Medicine and Are They Taken Account of in Health Policy?

Mentors: Steve Soumerai, Sc.D., and Dana Safran, Sc.D.

Placement: Harvard Medical School/Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: 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 heatlh 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.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• Patient Safety Advisory Committee, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, 2007
• Lord Trent Chair in Medicines and Health, School of Pharmacy, University of Nottingham, 2007
• Appointment to NICE Appraisals Committee, 2006

E-Mail:  rachel.elliott@nottingham.ac.uk

Harkness-Related Publications

Serumaga B, Ross-Degnan D, Avery AJ, Elliott RA, Majumdar SR, Zhang F, Soumerai SB. “Effect of pay for performance on the management and outcomes of hypertension in the United Kingdom: interrupted time series study.” British Medical Journal. 2011:342-d108.

Elliott RA, Shinogle J, Peele P, Bhosle M, Hughes D. “Understanding Medication Non-compliance From An Economics Perspective,” Value in Health 2008.

 Elliot RA, Ross-Degnan D, Adams A, Safran D, Soumeraiet S. “Strategies for Coping in a Complex World: Adherence Behavior Among Older Adults with Chronic Illness,” Journal of General Internal Medicine 2007; 22(6):805-10.

Elliott RA, Majumdar SR, Gillick MR, Soumerai SB. “Medicare Drug Benefit: Benefits and Consequences for the Poor and the Disabled,” New England Journal of Medicine 2005;  26(353): 2739-2741.

Elliott RA. “The US Health System Is Catching A Cold” (letter), Pharmaceutical Journal 2004; 273: 598

Elliott RA. “The Place Of Health in the US Presidential Election” (short paper), Pharmaceutical Journal 2004; 273: 640

Elliott R, Barber N, Noyce P. “Medication Adherence: Can Britain and the United States Learn Anything From Each Other?” Pharm J 2003; 271: 508-510