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- Principal Research Fellow
- Applied Health Research
- Institute of Epidemiology & Health
- Faculty of Pop Health Sciences
Elena is a Senior Health Economist. She holds a PhD in Economics and Management from Padua University, an MSc in Economics and Management of Health Care Services from Ferrara University and a BSc in Economics from Padua University.
She is currently a Principal Research Fellow in the Department of Applied Health Research at UCL.
She is also Health Economics Adviser for the Surgery and Interventional Trials Unit (SITU) at UCL, Methodological Expert for the HTA in the Connect4Children pan-European network and Health Economics Expert for the NIHR HTA CET Funding Committee.
She is Editorial Board Member for PlosOne, Frontiers and the International Journal of Health Economics and Policy and she does referee activity for many international journals.
Prior to coming to UCL she was a Research Associate at Imperial College Business School. She previously held a research post at the Department of Economics, Ferrara University, where she collaborated to a multi-year research project and undertook an economic evaluation of a Regional Colorectal Cancer Screening Program.




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.
Current Teaching UCL
- Module lead- Health Economics- BSc Population Health IEHC
- Module lead- Introduction Economic Evaluation- NIHR ARC Academy
- Module co-lead- Health economics- Cancer in Society Module- BSc in Cancer Biomedicine and BSc Applied Medical Sciences (IOC)
- Module co-lead Health Economics - Cancer in Society Module - iBSc in Oncology (IOC)
- Lecturer- Health Economics- iBSc and MSc in Sport and Exercise Medicine
- Lecturer- Health Economics- MSc Advanced Clinical Optometry & Ophthalmology
Other Teaching
- Module lead- Health Economics- MSc IHM and MSc Population Health, Imperial College London
- Module lead- Health Technology Assessment- MSc Healthcare Management, University Ca' Foscari Venice, Italy
- Module co-lead- Health Economics- BSc Economics and Business, University Padua, Italy
- Module co-lead- Pharmacoeconomics- BSc Health Economics, Cattolica University Rome, Italy
- Lecturer Health Economics - MSc Health Economics, City University London
01-FEB-2022 | Theme Lead Health Economics and Data | NIHR ARC North Thames London | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-OCT-2019 | Deputy Theme Lead Health Economics and Data | NIHR ARC North Thames | UCL, United Kingdom |
01-JAN-2019 – 31-DEC-2021 | Health economics adviser | SITU | UCL, United Kingdom |
21-MAR-2014 | Senior Research Associate | Applied Health Research | University College London, United Kingdom |
27-MAR-2009 – 20-MAR-2014 | Research Associate | Business School | Imperial College, United Kingdom |
01-JUL-2008 – 01-MAR-2009 | Research Assistant | Economics | University of Ferrara, Italy |
01-JAN-2008 – 01-DEC-2008 | Research Assistant | Economics | University of Padua, Italy |
01-JUN-2004 – 01-JUL-2004 | Research Assistant | Economics | University of Ferrara, Italy |
2009 | Doctor of Philosophy | Universita degli Studi di Padova | |
2009 | Advanced Post Graduate Diploma | University of York | |
2003 | Master of Science (Economics) | Universita degli Studi di Ferrara | |
2002 | Laurea | Universita degli Studi di Padova | |
1997 | Diploma di Maturita Scientifica |