Mahshid Abir

Senior Physician Policy Researcher, Professor of Policy Analysis, RAND School of Public Policy

Mahshid Abir is a senior physician policy researcher at RAND and a practicing emergency physician. Her research evaluates the acute care continuum including pre-hospital, emergency, inpatient, and ambulatory care. 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 Middle East pandemic response. She led a project funded by HHS/Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation around COVID-19 outcome measures. She co-led a Federal Emergency Management Agency study to develop processes to allocate COVID-19 Public Assistance to health systems. She led a project identifying policies to develop the health care workforce. She served on three National Academy of 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. She leads a project funded by the American College of Emergency Physicians to evaluate strategies to sustain emergency care. She also leads a study assessing impact of climate change on future demand for medical supplies. She has expertise in mixed methods and community-based participatory research.