Bio: Sarah Derrett, Ph.D., a 2011-12 New Zealand Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice, was deputy director of and is senior research fellow at the Injury Prevention Research Unit in the Department of Preventive and Social Medicine at the University of Otago. She has also been a member of the World Health Organization's Global Burden of Disease Injury Working Groups since 2008, and from 2007-10, she was a member of the New Zealand Ministry of Health Lower South Regional Ethics Committee. Previously, she was director of the M.B.A. (health executive) program at the Centre for Health and Planning and Management at Keele University in the United Kingdom. Derrett has peer-reviewed publications in journals such as New Zealand Medical Journal, Injury Prevention, and International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care. She holds a Ph.D. in public health and an M.P.H. from the University of Otago, and also holds a diploma in comprehensive nursing from the Otago Polytechnic School of Nursing.
Placement: University of Chicago
Mentors: Marshall Chin, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P., University of Chicago
Project: Strategies to Improve Care Integration: Lessons from Rural Patient Centered Medical Homes
Description: Derrett's project aimed to increase understanding about how, in practice, rural clinics transitioning to patient-centered medical homes (PCMH) have implemented and plan to sustain care integration. She conducted case studies at rural sites participating in the Qualis Health and MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation Safety Net to Medical Home Initiative. At each site, she conducted interviews with a cross-section of staff, including medical and nursing directors, senior managers and administrators, care coordinators, physicians and other providers.