Dr. Elena Frank is an Associate Research Scientist at the Michigan Neuroscience Institute and Director of the Intern Health Study, a prospective longitudinal cohort study of stress and depression among first-year medical residents with over 25,000 participants across more than 100 institutions in the US and China. Her research focuses on gender disparities in physician well-being, retention, and career trajectories, with particular attention to work-family conflict, sexual harassment, and the structural and policy factors that drive attrition among women in medicine. Her work has produced some of the first longitudinal evidence linking pandemic-related stressors to widening gender gaps in medicine, and has highlighted the urgent need for systemic reforms such as equitable parental leave, flexible scheduling, and institutional support for caregiving. As a Co-Investigator on the Healthcare Equity and Retention in Obstetrics and Gynecology (HERO) project, she extends this work to burnout and attrition among early-career OBGYN physicians. Her research has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, BMJ, and other leading journals, and has been covered by the New York Times and Harvard Business Review.
Elena Frank
