Dr. Emily Ager is an Emergency Medicine physician and health services researcher focused on improving the delivery of acute care for underserved patient populations. Originally from Oregon, she obtained her undergraduate degree at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota where she majored in Biology. She subsequently worked as a community organizer with Partners In Health and as a research assistant in a basic science research lab in Boston. She attended medical school at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, Oregon. After gaining an interest in health disparities research, she completed an MPH program at the Harvard School of Public Health. She then completed her clinical residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of Michigan.
Through clinical experience as a resident, Dr. Ager identified a need to improve the delivery and quality of care for reproductive and sexual health conditions in the ED. This gap in care became more pronounced after the 2022 Supreme Court Dobbs decision, which ended federal protections for abortion. As an NCSP fellow, Dr. Ager’s research focuses on the impact of maternity care deserts and the Dobbs decision on the delivery of care in the ED for conditions such as early pregnancy loss and ectopic pregnancy. She hopes to leverage these findings to develop and implement ED-based interventions to improve this care. She currently collaborates with clinicians and researchers in the Emergency Medicine, Obstetrics & Gynecology, and Family Medicine Departments at UCSF. She also works with UCSF’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health (ANSIRH) on an NIH-funded project related to reproductive health care delivery in the ED.
In addition to research, Dr. Ager is completing UCSF’s Advanced Training in Clinical Research (ATCR) Certificate program. She works clinically as an Emergency Medicine physician in the UCSF Parnassus Emergency Department. Outside of clinical work and research, Dr. Ager enjoys cycling, Telemark skiing, & traveling.
Research Interests: Investigating gaps in care and developing interventions to improve the quality and equity of reproductive and sexual health care in the Emergency Department.