About

Dr. Evon is a clinical health psychologist and behavioral medicine specialist who has worked in the field of chronic liver disease for over 15 years. Clinically, she enjoys working with patients who have chronic liver disease or cirrhosis who are interested in making lifestyle changes to improve their liver disease and overall physical health. Health behavior sessions with Dr. Evon include psychoeducation, learning and practicing behavioral-cognitive-motivational skills to help patients achieve health goals, and helping patients to maintain motivation/commitment for sustainable lifestyle changes. She teaches stress management strategies, relaxation techniques and strategies to tap into the mind-body connection. She offers individual, group, in-person and telehealth sessions.

Dr. Evon is also passionate about patient-centered outcomes research. Her research investigates psycho-social-behavioral factors involved in chronic liver disease, understanding patients‚ perspectives and experiences, and applying this knowledge to develop and test psychosocial interventions to improve health outcomes. Her research methods include quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews to collect data on patient experiences, inclusive of patient-reported outcomes (PROs). She recently completed a large $2.5m, 11 site, PCORI-funded study called PROP UP that evaluated change in patient functioning and symptoms during and after treatment for chronic hepatitis C. Dr. Evon often collaborates with patient engagement groups and patient advocacy organizations during the design and development of her research studies to ensure that study outcomes and survey measures are meaningful. Dr. Evon has been the lead investigator and a co-investigator on numerous grants funded by the NIH, PCORI, and industry. Some of her current projects include piloting a telehealth stress management and lifestyle group intervention for patients with chronic hepatitis C; evaluating symptom changes in patients with chronic hepatitis B undergoing treatment; and testing an intervention to mitigate adverse outcomes associated with injection drug use in rural Appalachia.