Eliana Ward-Lev

All Publications

• Career flexibility for PAs: What makes switching specialties successful? JAAPA : official journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants Ward-Lev, E., Kuriakose, C., Navoa, J. J., Halley, M. 2024

  Abstract

  ABSTRACT: Switching specialties is common among physician associates/assistants (PAs) and important in combating burnout. Despite this, little is known about the PA experience with switching specialties. This study sought to identify factors associated with successfully switching specialties using semistructured interviews with PAs and hiring managers. Participants reported that switching specialties was initially challenging for managers and PAs because of insufficient onboarding and unrealistic expectations, but they also reported that they were generally satisfied with long-term outcomes. Our findings suggest that PAs hoping to switch specialties may want to focus on building a professional network, identifying areas where they can highlight relevant experience, and demonstrating their intent to remain in that role. Hiring managers could benefit from considering their hiring practices and tailoring onboarding expectations for new hires.

  View details for DOI 10.1097/01.JAA.0000000000000004

  View details for PubMedID 38595169

• Health-related quality of life in patients with diverse rare diseases: An online survey. Genetics in medicine open Rao, A., Yabumoto, M., Ward-Lev, E., Miller, E. G., Naik, H., Halley, M. C. 2024; 2: 101889

  Abstract

  Rare diseases substantially contribute to population morbidity and mortality. Understanding rare disease health-related quality of life (HRQL) is essential for evaluating platform-based interventions that aim to tackle multiple rare diseases at a time. However, most HRQL studies focus on single or select group of rare diseases, often in a single country. Our study aimed to identify patient- and disease-specific correlates of HRQL across diverse rare diseases.We conducted an international online survey of rare disease patients and caregiver proxies affected by a systematically identified sample of rare diseases. We calculated EQ-5D scores and conducted multivariate linear regression to examine sociodemographic and disease predictors of EQ-5D-5L visual analog scale (VAS) and utility scores (United States only).A total of 1053 individuals affected by 103 different rare diseases participated, including 660 patients and 393 caregiver proxies. Disability status and disease prevalence correlated with poorer HRQL across models (P < .05). Increased pain and decreased ability to perform usual activities also correlated with lower VAS for both adult patients and caregiver proxies (P < .05). Being unemployed approached significance as a correlate of both lower caregiver proxy VAS and lower patient utility scores.Our results suggest that across rare diseases, lower HRQL is associated with a reduced rare disease prevalence and disability status, among other predictors. Understanding the key correlates of HRQL is essential for developing interventions for improving health care delivery and quality of life for rare disease patients and families.

  View details for DOI 10.1016/j.gimo.2024.101889

  View details for PubMedID 39669621

  View details for PubMedCentralID PMC11613748

• Demographic Characteristics Associated With Perceptions of Personal Utility in Genetic and Genomic Testing: A Systematic Review. JAMA network open Miller, E. G., Young, J. L., Rao, A., Ward-Lev, E., Halley, M. C. 2023; 6 (5): e2310367

  Abstract

  The expansion of genetic and genomic testing in health care has led to recognition that these tests provide personal as well as clinical utility to patients and families. However, available systematic reviews on this topic have not reported the demographic backgrounds of participants in studies of personal utility, leaving generalizability unclear.To determine the demographic characteristics of participants in studies examining the personal utility of genetic and genomic testing in health care.For this systematic review, we utilized and updated the results of a highly cited 2017 systematic review on the personal utility of genetics and genomics, which identified relevant articles published between January 1, 2003, and August 4, 2016. We also used the original methods to update this bibliography with literature published subsequently up to January 1, 2022. Studies were screened for eligibility by 2 independent reviewers. Eligible studies reported empirical data on the perspectives of patients, family members, and/or the general public in the US on the personal utility of any type of health-related genetic or genomic test. We utilized a standardized codebook to extract study and participant characteristics. We summarized demographic characteristics descriptively across all studies and by subgroup based on study and participant characteristics.We included 52 studies with 13 251 eligible participants. Sex or gender was the most frequently reported demographic characteristic (48 studies [92.3%]), followed by race and ethnicity (40 studies [76.9%]), education (38 studies [73.1%]), and income (26 studies [50.0%]). Across studies, participants disproportionately were women or female (mean [SD], 70.8% [20.5%]), were White (mean [SD], 76.1% [22.0%]), had a college degree or higher (mean [SD], 64.5% [19.9%]), and reported income above the US median (mean [SD], 67.4% [19.2%]). Examination of subgroups of results by study and participant characteristics evidenced only small shifts in demographic characteristics.This systematic review examined the demographic characteristics of individual participants in studies of the personal utility of health-related genetic and genomic testing in the US. The results suggest that participants in these studies were disproportionately White, college-educated women with above-average income. Understanding the perspectives of more diverse individuals regarding the personal utility of genetic and genomic testing may inform barriers to research recruitment and uptake of clinical testing in currently underrepresented populations.

  View details for DOI 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.10367

  View details for PubMedID 37145601