• Pain in children
• Cancer pain
• Technology and education 

For the past 25 years, Dr. Eland has been investigating the concept of pain from both a research and clinical perspective. She is nationally and internationally known for her work in the area of children's pain and was a member of the WHO Panel that wrote the guidelines for the control of children's pain for the world's children. Her interest in communication of the information concerning children's pain led to an interest in technology. The website she created for children's pain has received four national awards, and is accessed by 1,700 users per day. Her commitment to the topic has resulted in more than 450 national presentations outside of the state of Iowa on the topic. In 1997, she received the first ever Jeffery Lawson Award for Advocacy in Children's Pain from the American Pain Society. In 2001, she received one of Sigma Theta Tau's highest honors, The Audrey Hepburn Award, for her international work with children's pain.