PhD
Professor, Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy
Eshelman School of Pharmacy
UNC-Chapel Hill
Cancer Prevention and Control Research Program
Area of Interest
Dr. Jennifer Elston Lafata is Professor with tenure in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy and co-lead for the UNC Cancer Care Quality Initiative. She holds an adjunct appointment with the Department of Health Policy and Management at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and serves as an Improvement Advisor with UNC Health’s Office of Quality Excellence/Basnight Cancer Hospital and Cancer Services.
As a health services researcher with a commitment to patient-centered care, her research is at the forefront of improving cancer care quality by identifying and addressing gaps in care delivery within healthcare organizations. She uses diverse methodologies, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods, to assess patient-reported needs, especially following provider recommendations, and the impacts of these needs on patient adherence and health outcomes. Her work has been instrumental in developing and implementing population-based interventions aimed at enhancing care quality. As a practice-embedded health services researcher, she leverages health system data, including electronic health records, patient surveys, and office visit audio recordings, to identify and address multi-level factors affecting care quality. This work has resulted in the creation of decision support tools for both patients and providers, aiming to improve patient adherence to recommended care and to enhance overall care delivery. Key areas of her current research include evaluating interventions to prevent acute care events among oncology patients, assessing the accessibility, equity and effectiveness of oncology integrated telehealth visits, and understanding shared decision-making processes in the context of lung cancer screening and other cancer care delivery.
She is currently leading a project funded by AHRQ to develop a patient-reported measure of shared decision-makingand ARPA-H to engage diverse end users to support a user-centered design of the development of large language models and other AI to enhance the identification of cancer and cancer patients in real time and ARPA-H to engage diverse end users to support a user-centered design of large language models and other AI to enhance the identification of cancer and cancer patients in real time.
Awards and Honors
- Commonwealth University Outstanding Departmental Teacher Award in Health Sciences Education, Virginia, 2014
- National Institute of Aging (NIA) Predoctoral Traineeship, The University of Michigan, 1989-92
- Foster McGaw Scholarship Award, 1986
- Delta Omega, National Public Health Honor Society, UNC-Chapel Hill, 1985
News and Stories
UNC Lineberger hosts inaugural Innovate Cancer Data Science Symposium
Researchers, clinicians, data scientists and trainees gathered for the inaugural UNC Lineberger Innovate Cancer Data Science Symposium, a daylong event highlighting the rapid evolution of AI, genomics and data‑driven tools shaping the future of cancer care.
UNC faculty and trainees to present at the world’s largest clinical cancer research meeting
UNC faculty and trainees will share their latest research findings and clinical insights during talks, poster presentations and panel discussions during the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting in Chicago, taking place May 30 – June 3.
