Dr. Sonnad's current research includes studying patients’ attitudes toward medical innovation, physician preferences and knowledge concerning medical and surgical technologies, issues facing women in academic medicine, diffusion of effective and ineffective surgical technologies, patient outcomes following surgical interventions in trauma, transplant, surgical oncology, plastic surgery, and urology. Her overall research interests surround how patients, physicians and health-care systems make decisions about new medical technology and utilizes a range of methods including meta-analysis, survey research, database analysis, and clinical trials.