Elena is particularly interested in economic evaluation of health care technologies and interventions, clinical decision analysis and, more generally, in measurement of health and distributional aspects of health policy. 

She has expertise in economic evaluation of complex interventions, particularly those in primary care, prevention, dementia and maternity care. She has performed the economic evaluation of several interventions, including stroke, HIV, and cancer treatments. She collaborated to a research project to assess the cost-effectiveness of a Regional colorectal cancer screening programme in Italy. During the project she investigated the measurement of Quality of Life in patients undergoing screening procedures. She also developed a study to investigate the causes of the high rate of C-section during delivery in Italy and the associated costs.  

At UCL she is currently working as part of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North Thames in the role of Co-Deputy Lead of the Health Economics and Data (HEAD) and Senior Health Economist Advisor for the Research Partnership team. She is involved on a broad range of projects, including the evaluation of  the Getting it Right The First Time (GIRFT)  intervention to improve orthopaedics care in England.