Westyn Branch-Elliman, MD, MMSc, FSHEA, FIDSA, is the Acting Director of Health Sciences-AI in the VA Digital Health Office, Chief in the Section of Infectious Diseases at the Greater LA VA Medical Center, and a Professor of Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She is an established clinician investigator and VA research PI with expertise in dissemination and implementation science, epidemiology, policy evaluation, leveraging VA databases to support automated surveillance activities, and rapid response research to support learning healthcare systems initiatives that translate big data into bedside impact. In her current role as Acting Director of Health Sciences-AI, Dr. Branch-Elliman works to rapidly integrate new and emerging technology to improve bedside care.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she led a multicenter therapeutics clinical trial and served as a scientific policy advisor to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, providing support for the design and implementation of the state-wide Test-to-Stay Modified Quarantine Program in addition to other in-school testing programs. She is formerly the Medical Director of Infection Prevention and Antimicrobial Stewardship at the Eastern Colorado VA Healthcare System and an associate editor of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the major journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology in America.