Full Professor
UCLA School of Public Health

Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772
Phone: (818) 891-7711 x5483
Fax: (818) 895-5838
E-mail: Elizabeth.Yano@med.va.gov

Dr. Yano is an Adjunct Professor at the UCLA School of Public Health. She teaches the Practices of Evaluation in Health Services: Theory and Methodology course for the EMPH Program. Dr. Yano received her PhD and MSPH from the UCLA School of Public Health, both in the Department of Epidemiology. A former Institute of Medicine Pew Memorial Trusts Health Policy Fellow, she minored in biostatistics and specializes in research methods and health policy analysis.

Dr. Yano has 25 years’ of program evaluation and health service research experience. She is Deputy Director at the VA Greater Los Angeles HSR&D Center of Excellence for the Study of Healthcare Provider Behavior and was recently awarded a VA HSR&D Research Career Scientist Award for her outstanding accomplishments in health services research, mentorship and service. Her research involves evaluating organizational influences on quality of care and evaluating impacts of system reorganization and practice-level quality improvement (QI) interventions, including both multi-state group randomized trials of primary care-based evidence-based QI approaches to improving smoking cessation rates and depression care and qualitative evaluations of process and organizational change.

Dr. Yano led the development of the first national VA women’s health research agenda and served as guest editor of the Journal of General Internal Medicine’s Special Issue on VA Women’s Health Care, in addition to serving on the VA HSR&D Scientific Merit Review Boards for Equity/Women’s Health and Implementation/Management Research. She mentors MD and PhD VA HSR&D career development awardees, co-directs the Center’s Associated Health Postdoctoral Program, serves as faculty mentor for the VA Health Services Research and Women’s Health Fellowship Programs, and serves on the Research Advisory Board of the RWJ UCLA Clinical Scholars Program.

Recent publications include:

Yano EM, Rubenstein LV, Chernof BA, Mittman BS, Lanto AB, Simon BF, Lee ML, Sherman SE. Targeting primary care referrals to smoking cessation clinics does not improve quit rates: The difficulty of implementing evidence-based practice into routine care. Health Services Research, 2008; in press.

Yano EM, Simon BF, Lanto AB, Rubenstein LV. The evolution of changes in primary care delivery underlying the Veterans Health Administration’s quality transformation. Am J Public Health. 2007;97(12):2151-2159.

Yano EM, Soban LM, Parkerton PH, Etzioni DA. Primary care practice organization influences colorectal cancer screening performance. Health Services Research, 2007; 48(3):1130-1149.

Yano EM, Goldzweig C, Canelo I, Washington DL. Diffusion of innovation in women’s health care delivery: The Department of Veterans Affairs’ adoption of women’s health clinics. Women’s Health Issues, 2006; 16(5):226-235.

Yano EM, Bastian L, Frayne S, Howell A, Lipson L, McGlynn G, Seaver M, Spungen A, Fihn SD. Toward a VA women’s health research agenda: Setting evidence-based priorities to improve the health and health care of women veterans. J Gen Intern Med. 2006;21(Suppl 3):S93-101.