Emily Boss, MD, MPH

Professional Titles

• Director, Pediatric Otolaryngology
• Medical Director, Revenue Cycle Performance Improvement, Johns Hopkins Medicine
• Physician Advisor, Clinical Resource Management and Care Coordination, Johns Hopkins Hospital

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Background

Centers and Institutes

• Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality
• Bloomberg School of Public Health
• Health Policy and Management
• Health Services and Outcomes Research, Center for
• Johns Hopkins Children's Center

X (Twitter)

https://twitter.com/emilybossmd

Recent News Articles and Media Coverage

• Spring Allergy Season on Long Island: Here's What to Know, Newsday, March 27, 2025

• Surgical Decisions Are Complex. NIH Cuts Could Complicate Them Further. Johns Hopkins Hub, March 3, 2025

• The Unrealized Potential of the Reg-ent ENT Clinical Data Registry, JAMA Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery Podcast, June 29, 2023

• You Have to Be Sure Before Someone Cuts on Your Baby, JAMA Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery Podcast, August 25, 2016

• Kids get Uneven Tonsil Care, Study Finds, NBC News Jan 20, 2014 

Additional Academic Titles

Professor of Pediatrics

Research Interests

Patient-doctor communication; surgical overuse; evidence-based medicine; healthcare variation; shared decision-making; pediatric tonsillectomy

Lab Website

The Boss Lab

Research Summary

The Boss Lab's research evaluates how families experience surgical care and how systems shape that experience. We focus on doctor-patient communication, decision-making, and outcomes in elective pediatric surgery, using patient- and parent-reported data to understand what matters most. Our work examines surgical utilization patterns, overuse, and variation in care. We also study how structural and operational factors influence the quality, safety, and equity of pediatric surgical care, with the goal of making care more transparent, effective, and patient-centered.

Google Scholar

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=Emily+Boss&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C21&as_sdtp=

PubMed

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Boss%2C%20Emily%20F[Full%20Author%20Name]&cmd=DetailsSearch

Selected Publications

• Boss EF, Marsteller JA, Simon AE. Outpatient tonsillectomy in children: demographic and geographic variation in the United States, 2006. J Pediatr. 2012 May;160(5):814-9. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2011.11.041. Epub 2011 Dec 17. PMID: 22183449

• Callon W, Beach MC, Links AR, Wasserman C, Boss EF. An expanded framework to define and measure shared decision-making in dialogue: A 'top-down' and 'bottom-up' approach. Patient Educ Couns. 2018 Aug;101(8):1368-1377. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2018.03.014. Epub 2018 Mar 11. PMID: 29550295; PMCID: PMC6475620

• Cramer JD, Meraj T, Lavin JM, Boss EF. Object-Related Aspiration Deaths in Children and Adolescents in the United States, 1968 to 2017. JAMA. 2019 Nov 26;322(20):2020-2022. doi: 10.1001/jama.2019.15375. PMID: 31769817; PMCID: PMC6902204

• Leu GR, Links AR, Tunkel DE, Walsh JM, Ryan MA, DiCarlo H, Jelin EB, Beach MC, Boss EF. Understanding Bias in Surgery: Perceived Cultural Similarity Between Surgeons and Patient Families. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2021 Aug;165(2):282-289. doi: 10.1177/0194599820982639. Epub 2021 Jan 12. PMID: 33430701

• Links AR, Callon W, Wasserman C, Walsh J, Beach MC, Boss EF. Surgeon use of medical jargon with parents in the outpatient setting. Patient Educ Couns. 2019 Jun;102(6):1111-1118. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2019.02.002. Epub 2019 Feb 3. PMID: 30744965; PMCID: PMC6525640

Honors

• Top Doctor - Pediatric Otolaryngology, Baltimore Magazine, 11/1/23
• Cochrane Scholar, American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, 1/1/14
• Career Development Award, American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology, 1/1/14

Memberships

• American Academy of Otolaryngology
• American College of Surgeons
• American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology