Yaara Zisman-Ilani is an expert in shared decision-making research and practice. Her research involves investigating the processes of shared decision making in mental health, focusing on patients with serious mental illness and psychosis in inpatient, outpatient, and community settings. She has dedicated more than 15 years to designing, implementing, and evaluating shared decision-making interventions and decision aid tools to improve patient-clinician interactions; to support patient empowerment, activation, and self-determination; and to support engagement of patients in their own care. She has expertise in developing decision aids, decision support tools, and other shared decision-making interventions for individuals with mental illnesses for medical and non-medical decisions. She is also experienced in developing shared decision-making measures. She has broadened her expertise and translated her skill set to include additional patient populations, including women, mothers, individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), substance use disorder (SUD), and Crohn's disease, while also highlighting patients from underserved ethnic/racial minority groups. In addition to her research experience and expertise, she brings to the table lived experiences as an ethnic and racial minority immigrant, a woman and a mother, as well as out-of-the-box international and national perspective on patient-centered research.

Involvement with PCORI

Research Partner - Engagement Award: Virtual Engagement of Mothers with Mental Illness and Substance Use in the Context of COVID-19 – Project Lead: Joanne Nicholson

Research Partner - Engagement Award: Creating a Community with Mothers with Mental Illness Using Opioids – Project Lead: Joanne Nicholson

Research Partner - Engagement Award: Engaging Mothers with IDD and Behavioral Health Conditions in Research – Project Lead: Joanne Nicholson

Served on a PCORI Advisory Panel

Ambassador Interests

Health Conditions Health Conditions These are the broad terms we use to categorize our funded research studies; specific diseases or conditions are included within the appropriate larger category. Note: not all of our funded projects focus on a single disease or condition; some touch on multiple diseases or conditions, research methods, or broader health system interventions. Such projects won’t be listed by a primary disease/condition and so won’t appear if you use this filter tool to find them. View Glossary
Populations Populations PCORI is interested in research that seeks to better understand how different clinical and health system options work for different people. These populations are frequently studied in our portfolio or identified as being of interest by our stakeholders. View Glossary
Stakeholder Types
State State The state where the project originates, or where the primary institution or organization is located. View Glossary

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