Research Expertise and Interest

coordination of health care and social services, performance improvement, implementation of new practices

Research Description

Amanda L. Brewster is an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Management at the School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. Her research examines how management and inter-organizational relationships influence the performance of health care organizations. Her recent work focuses on identifying effective strategies for health care and social services to work together to address both medical and social determinants of health, including studies of cross-sector collaboration at the community level, partnerships between Area Agencies on Aging and health care organizations, and screening for social determinants of health in physician practices. Her work employs a range of methods, including qualitative and mixed-methods, organizational network analysis, and longitudinal analyses leveraging large survey-based and claims-based datasets.

In addition to her research on relationships between health care and social services organizations, Dr. Brewster also studies quality improvement and organizational learning in health care organizations. This work has included research on hospital efforts to reduce readmissions and mortality from acute myocardial infarction.