Alison Rustagi, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

She aims to provide high-quality evidence to predict who will benefit most from a preventive intervention to inform national practice guidelines and enable patients to make individualized health decisions

Her current focus is on screening for lung cancer, a disease which disproportionately affects Veterans. Dr. Rustagi seeks to identify those most likely to benefit from lung cancer screening using a variety of health metrics. Since joining the UCSF faculty in 2021, she has become a national thought leader in lung cancer screening, as recognized in the Annals of Internal Medicine (PMID: 36877963). She is now conducting one of the first real-world studies of the effectiveness of lung cancer screening using advanced causal inference methods. Her research program is funded by the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Institutes of Health, and others.

Dr. Rustagi also seeks to train future leaders in medicine and population health, and has been recognized for her mentorship with a 2025 Long-Term Mentoring Award by the UCSF’s School of Medicine.

• Self-Rated Health and Ability to Climb Stairs: A Pragmatic Health Assessment Before Lung Cancer Screening.
  Annals of internal medicine 2023 Rustagi AS, Slatore CG, Keyhani S
• Lung Cancer Screening Among U.S. Military Veterans by Health Status and Race and Ethnicity, 2017-2020: A Cross-Sectional Population-Based Study.
  AJPM focus 2023 Rustagi AS, Byers AL, Brown JK, Purcell N, Slatore CG, Keyhani S
• Likelihood of Lung Cancer Screening by Poor Health Status and Race and Ethnicity in US Adults, 2017 to 2020.
  JAMA network open 2022 Rustagi AS, Byers AL, Keyhani S
• Association of Daily Alcohol Intake, Volumetric Breast Density, and Breast Cancer Risk.
  JNCI cancer spectrum 2021 Rustagi AS, Scott CG, Winham SJ, Brandt KR, Norman AD, Jensen MR, Shepherd JA, Hruska C, Heine JJ, Pankratz VS, Kerlikowske K, Vachon CM
• Results are not generalizable to children attending school.
  Pediatrics 2020 Rustagi AS
• Incidence of Health Care-Associated COVID-19 During Universal Testing of Medical and Surgical Admissions in a Large US Health System.
  Open forum infectious diseases 2020 Long DR, O'Reilly-Shah V, Rustagi AS, Bryson-Cahn C, Jerome KR, Weiss NS, Sunshine JE
• Physician mothers' experience of workplace discrimination: a qualitative analysis.
  BMJ (Clinical research ed.) 2018 Halley MC, Rustagi AS, Torres JS, Linos E, Plaut V, Mangurian C, Choo E, Linos E
• Thyroid Function Screening in Children With Alopecia Areata.
  JAMA dermatology 2018 Rustagi AS, Weiss NS
• Vulvovaginal Graft-Versus-Host Disease.
  Obstetrics and gynecology clinics of North America 2017 Kornik RI, Rustagi AS
• A cross-sectional analysis of Trichomonas vaginalis infection among heterosexual HIV-1 serodiscordant African couples.
  Sexually transmitted infections 2017 Bochner AF, Baeten JM, Rustagi AS, Nakku-Joloba E, Lingappa JR, Mugo NR, Bukusi EA, Kapiga S, Delany-Moretlwe S, Celum C, Barnabas RV, Partners in Prevention HSV/HIV Transmission Study and Partners …
• Health facility factors and quality of services to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission in Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, and Mozambique.
  International journal of STD & AIDS 2016 Rustagi AS, Gimbel S, Nduati R, Cuembelo MF, Wasserheit JN, Farquhar C, Gloyd S, Sherr K, with input from the SAIA Study Team
• Evaluation of a Systems Analysis and Improvement Approach to Optimize Prevention of Mother-To-Child Transmission of HIV Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research.
  Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 2016 Gimbel S, Rustagi AS, Robinson J, Kouyate S, Coutinho J, Nduati R, Pfeiffer J, Gloyd S, Sherr K, Granato SA, Kone A, Cruz E, Manuel JL, Zucule J, Napua M, Mbatia G, Wariua G, Maina M, with input from …
• Implementation and Operational Research: Impact of a Systems Engineering Intervention on PMTCT Service Delivery in Côte d'Ivoire, Kenya, Mozambique: A Cluster Randomized Trial.
  Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 2016 Rustagi AS, Gimbel S, Nduati R, Cuembelo Mde F, Wasserheit JN, Farquhar C, Gloyd S, Sherr K, with input from the SAIA Study Team
• Perspectives of key stakeholders regarding task shifting of care for HIV patients in Mozambique: a qualitative interview-based study with Ministry of Health leaders, clinicians, and donors.
  Human resources for health 2015 Rustagi AS, Manjate RM, Gloyd S, John-Stewart G, Micek M, Gimbel S, Sherr K
• Systems analysis and improvement to optimize pMTCT (SAIA): a cluster randomized trial.
  Implementation science : IS 2014 Sherr K, Gimbel S, Rustagi A, Nduati R, Cuembelo F, Farquhar C, Wasserheit J, Gloyd S, With input from the SAIA Study Team
• Cervical screening and cervical cancer death among older women: a population-based, case-control study.
  American journal of epidemiology 2014 Rustagi AS, Kamineni A, Weinmann S, Reed SD, Newcomb P, Weiss NS
• What does high and low have to do with it? Performance classification to identify health system factors associated with effective prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV delivery in Mozambique.
  Journal of the International AIDS Society 2014 Gimbel S, Voss J, Rustagi A, Mercer MA, Zierler B, Gloyd S, Coutinho Mde J, Cuembelo Mde F, Sherr K
• Point: cervical cancer screening guidelines should consider observational data on screening efficacy in older women.
  American journal of epidemiology 2013 Rustagi AS, Kamineni A, Weiss NS