Education

• Doctorate, University of California, Los Angeles, 2019
• Master’s, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, United States, 2012 – 2014
• Undergraduate, Stanford University, 2005

Research

• Clinical sciences
• Public health
• Minority aging
• Health services and systems
• Epidemiology
• Pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences
• Policy and administration
• Informatics and information systems

Overview

Michelle Keller PhD, MPH is a health services researcher with training in epidemiology and qualitative research methods. Keller’s research focuses on reducing low-value health care, facilitating patient-clinician communication,  increasing dementia identification in minority older adults, and improving medication management for diverse populations.

Her current work is focused on evaluating patient-centered deprescribing interventions for high-risk medications such as opioids, benzodiazepines, and sleep medications in older adults. Research topics include interventions to enhance care and manage polypharmacy in underresourced communities and for older populations facing language barriers.

Keller recently conducted studies examining how clinicians incorporate patient comorbidities and risk factors when prescribing opioids, when and why clinicians adopt opioid risk mitigation strategies, and how health systems can use prescription-level data to understand population-level opioid and benzodiazepine prescribing.

As part of her informatics research, Keller examines the effectiveness of health information technologies aimed at improving medical decision-making. In this work, she has co-authored peer-reviewed papers on topics such as the development of an online patient decision aid for patients with inflammatory bowel disease, how computers at the bedside impede communication during rounds in critical care surgical units, and the effect of computerized appropriateness alerts on inpatient costs and length of stay.

Prior to working in health care, Keller worked as a journalist for publications such as the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune. She received her PhD and MPH in Health Policy and Management from UCLA and her BA in Human Biology from Stanford University.