Mahshid Abir

Mahshid Abir
Senior Physician Policy Researcher
Off Site Office

Education

M.D. in medicine with intern, University of Cincinnati; M.Sc. in health and health services research, University of Michigan, RWJF Clinical Scholars Program

Overview

Mahshid Abir is a senior physician policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Also a practicing emergency physician, her research evaluates the acute care continuum including pre-hospital, emergency, inpatient, and ambulatory care, with a focus on policy-related issues. Abir's past work includes developing measures for hospital surge capacity funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response. She also evaluated patient-centered outcomes as part of health system redesign initiatives. She led COVID-19 related projects including evaluating strategies to increase critical care capacity, identifying solutions for boosting vaccine acceptance, and pandemic response in Middle East nations. She led a project funded by HHS/Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation around COVID-19 outcome measures. She served on three National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus committees focused on public health emergency preparedness/response, vaccine supply, and medical supply chain. She testified before the U.S. Senate Aging Committee on disaster preparedness/response/recovery for older adults and people with disabilities. She currently leads a project funded by the American College of Emergency Physicians to evaluate strategies to sustain emergency care in the U.S. She also leads a project identifying policies to develop the healthcare workforce. She has expertise in mixed quantitative–qualitative methods and community/ stakeholder-based participatory research. 
Abir earned her M.D. from the University of Cincinnati.

Commentary

Publications