Sarah Garrett, PhD

Assistant Adjunct Professor
Institute for Health Policy Studies
+1 415 476-8578

Sarah B. Garrett, PhD, is a medical and cultural sociologist. She works to promote health equity via stakeholder-informed mixed-methods research, focusing in particular on maternal health. She is core faculty at the Phillip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies (IHPS) at UCSF.

Sarah is currently PI of a UCSF CTSI KL2 project, "Maternal health interventions in California hospitals: Understanding approaches & implementation to advance equity" (2022-2025). The overall objective of the proposed research is to elucidate how different health systems approach mitigating disparities in maternal health; to develop a survey to capture organizational influences on these mitigation efforts; and to develop a community-informed and community-accountable systems-change agenda for the next generation of equity interventions. A birth equity stakeholder advisory board (BIPOC community members, clinicians, scholars) will guide and advise the project.

From 2020-2022, Sarah was a T32 Health Policy Fellow at IHPS. Among other activities, she designed and led the MEND study: Multi-Stakeholder Engagement with State Policies to Advance Antiracism in Maternal Health. The multiple-methods project engages Black women and birthing people, socio-legal scholars, perinatal clinicians, and a fully-funded community advisory panel of Black mothers to develop evidence-based guidance for clinician implicit bias training.

Prior to being a Fellow, Sarah worked as research staff in the Division of Geriatrics and at IHPS. In Geriatrics she helped to design, conduct and analyze mixed-methods research on the experiences and needs of individuals with dementia and their caregivers; on older adults' experience managing chronic pain; and on how hospice staff navigate patients' and families' preferences for aggressive care. At IHPS Sarah is a part of the Medical Cultures Lab, a social science “laboratory” that is focused on several related initiatives examining the role of culture in medicine. There she works to improve methods of analyzing, presenting, and sharing qualitative data in order to make these data more useful in patient-centered research. Sarah has also contributed research and project direction to an NIH-funded study on cancer patients' understanding of and decision-making about participation in early phase clinical trials; a PCORI-funded methodological project to improve the conduct and communication of qualitative research; and a CTSI-funded study on the ways in which lay Californians perceive the risks and benefits of human tissue biobanking.

For her NSF-funded doctoral research at UC Berkeley, Sarah conducted a longitudinal study on the ways in which a diverse group of pregnant women in the San Francisco Bay Area perceived prenatal care and birth care options; the origins of those perceptions; and how the perceptions affected their decision-making and postpartum mental health. She collected and analyzed original quantitative (n = 325) and qualitative (n = 67) data for the study. Results have been published in peer-reviewed journals and presented at national conferences.

Publications: 

"Relationships, Very Quickly, Turn to Nothing": Loneliness, Social Isolation, and Adaptation to Changing Social Lives Among Persons Living With Dementia and Care Partners.

The Gerontologist

Kotwal AA, Allison TA, Halim M, Garrett SB, Perissinotto CM, Ritchie CS, Smith AK, Harrison KL

Challenges and Opportunities for Clinician Implicit Bias Training: Insights from Perinatal Care Stakeholders.

Health equity

Garrett SB, Jones L, Montague A, Fa-Yusuf H, Harris-Taylor J, Powell B, Chan E, Zamarripa S, Hooper S, Chambers Butcher BD

Antibias Efforts in United States Maternity Care: A Scoping Review of the Publicly Funded Health Equity Intervention Pipeline

Clinical Obstetrics & Gynecology

Garrett SB, Walia A, Miller F, Tahir P, Jones L, Harris J, Powell B, Chambers B, Simon MA.

Developing neuropalliative care for sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease.

Prion

Harrison KL, Garrett SB, Gilissen J, Terranova MJ, Bernstein Sideman A, Ritchie CS, Geschwind MD

Caregiver Experiences Navigating the Diagnostic Journey in a Rapidly Progressing Dementia.

Journal of geriatric psychiatry and neurology

Sideman AB, Gilissen J, Harrison KL, Garrett SB, Terranova MJ, Ritchie CS, Geschwind MD

Progressive Isolation, Loneliness, and Support: The Social Experiences of Persons with Dementia and Caregivers (RP421).

Journal of pain and symptom management

Ashwin Kotwal, Christine Ritchie, Sarah Garrett, Madina Halim, Alexander Smith, Carla Perissinotto, Krista Harrison

Advance Directive and POLST Documentation in Decedents With Dementia at a Memory Care Center: The Importance of Early Advance Care Planning.

Neurology. Clinical practice

Naasan G, Boyd ND, Harrison KL, Garrett SB, D'Aguiar Rosa T, Pérez-Cerpa B, McFarlane S, Miller BL, Ritchie CS

"Captive by the Uncertainty"-Experiences with Anticipatory Guidance for People Living with Dementia and Their Caregivers at a Specialty Dementia Clinic.

Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD

Shafir A, Ritchie CS, Garrett SB, Bernstein Sideman A, Naasan G, Merrilees J, Widera E, Flint L, Harrison KL

"I Didn't Sign Up for This": Perspectives from Persons Living with Dementia and Care Partners on Challenges, Supports, and Opportunities to Add Geriatric Neuropalliative Care to Dementia Specialty Care.

Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD

Harrison KL, Garrett SB, Halim M, Bernstein Sideman A, Allison TA, Dohan D, Naasan G, Miller BL, Smith AK, Ritchie CS

Characteristics of people with dementia lost to follow-up from a dementia care center.

International journal of geriatric psychiatry

Boyd ND, Naasan G, Harrison KL, Garrett SB, D'Aguiar Rosa T, Pérez-Cerpa B, McFarlane S, Miller BL, Ritchie CS

Practices, challenges, and opportunities when addressing the palliative care needs of people living with dementia: Specialty memory care provider perspectives.

Alzheimer's & dementia (New York, N. Y.)

Bernstein Sideman A, Harrison KL, Garrett SB, Naasan G, Dementia Palliative Care Writing Group, Ritchie CS

A Home-Based Care Research Agenda by and for Homebound Older Adults and Caregivers.

Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society

Leff B, Sheehan OC, Harrison KL, Eaton England A, Mickler A, Basyal PS, Garrigues SK, Schuchman M, Perissinotto C, Garrett SB, Ritchie CS

"Goals of Care Conversations Don't Fit in a Box": Hospice Staff Experiences and Perceptions of Advance Care Planning Quality Measurement.

Journal of pain and symptom management

Hunt LJ, Garrett SB, Dressler G, Sudore R, Ritchie CS, Harrison KL

Unintended Consequences of Opioid Regulations in Older Adults with Multiple Chronic Conditions.

The Gerontologist

Ritchie CS, Garrett SB, Thompson N, Miaskowski C

Hospice employee perspectives on CPR and "Aggressive Care” for the Dying: Communication Practices and Ethical Dilemmas in Hospice (GP742).

Journal of pain and symptom management

Gabrielle Dressler, Sarah Garrett, Lauren Hunt, Nicole Thompson, Katherine Mahoney, Rebecca Sudore, Christine Ritchie, Krista Harrison

“I needed someone to hold my hand”: Experiences and Unmet Palliative Care Needs at Home from the Perspective of People with Dementia and Caregivers (GP741).

Journal of pain and symptom management

Krista Harrison, Sarah Garrett, Alissa Bernstein, Georges Naasan, Christine Ritchie

Unanticipated Therapeutic Value of the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) Stakeholder Engagement Project for Homebound Older Adults.

Journal of the American Medical Directors Association

Sheehan OC, Ritchie CS, Garrett SB, Harrison KL, Mickler A, Eaton England AL, Sharma Basyal P, Garrigues SK, Leff B

Patient and clinician perspectives on a patient-facing dashboard that visualizes patient reported outcomes in rheumatoid arthritis.

Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy

Liu LH, Garrett SB, Li J, Ragouzeos D, Berrean B, Dohan D, Katz PP, Barton JL, Yazdany J, Schmajuk G

Hospice Staff Perspectives on Caring for People with Dementia: A Multisite, Multistakeholder Study.

Journal of palliative medicine

Harrison KL, Allison TA, Garrett SB, Thompson N, Sudore RL, Ritchie CS

New Evidence-Based Guidelines for Dementia Palliative Care (FR418).

Journal of pain and symptom management

Krista L. Harrison, Christine S. Ritchie, Abraham A. Brody, Sarah B. Garrett, Alissa Bernstein, Talita Rosa, Brenda Perez-Cerpa, Georges Naasan

Community-Based Palliative Care Consultations: Comparing Dementia to Nondementia Serious Illnesses.

Journal of palliative medicine

Harrison KL, Bull JH, Garrett SB, Bonsignore L, Bice T, Hanson LC, Ritchie CS

Before Consent: Qualitative Analysis of Deliberations of Patients With Advanced Cancer About Early-Phase Clinical Trials.

JCO oncology practice

Garrett SB, Matthews TM, Abramson CM, Koenig CJ, Hlubocky FJ, Daugherty CK, Munster PN, Dohan D

Beyond exploratory: a tailored framework for designing and assessing qualitative health research.

BMJ open

Rendle KA, Abramson CM, Garrett SB, Halley MC, Dohan D

ADVANCED DIRECTIVE AND POLST UTILIZATION IN DECEDENTS WITH DEMENTIA PREVIOUSLY SEEN AT A MEMORY CENTER.

Alzheimer's & Dementia

Georges Naasan, Nicole Boyd, Sarah Garrett, Talita D'Aguiar Rosa, Brenda Pérez-Cerpa, Krista L. Harrison, Christine S. Ritchie

ADVANCED DIRECTIVE AND POLST UTILIZATION IN DECEDENTS WITH DEMENTIA PREVIOUSLY SEEN AT A MEMORY CENTER.

Alzheimer's & Dementia

Georges Naasan, Nicole Boyd, Sarah Garrett, Talita D'Aguiar Rosa, Brenda Pérez-Cerpa, Krista L. Harrison, Christine S. Ritchie

FACTORS IMPACTING LOSS-TO-FOLLOW-UP FROM A MEMORY CARE CENTER: A STUDY OF POTENTIAL PALLIATIVE CARE NEEDS.

Alzheimer's & Dementia

Nicole Boyd, Georges Naasan, Sarah Garrett, Talita D'Aguiar Rosa, Brenda Pérez-Cerpa, Krista L. Harrison, Christine S. Ritchie

FACTORS IMPACTING LOSS-TO-FOLLOW-UP FROM A MEMORY CARE CENTER: A STUDY OF POTENTIAL PALLIATIVE CARE NEEDS.

Alzheimer's & Dementia

Nicole Boyd, Georges Naasan, Sarah Garrett, Talita D'Aguiar Rosa, Brenda Pérez-Cerpa, Krista L. Harrison, Christine S. Ritchie

Approaches to decision-making among late-stage melanoma patients: a multifactorial investigation.

Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer

Garrett SB, Abramson CM, Rendle KA, Dohan D

The promises of computational ethnography: Improving transparency, replicability, and validity for realist approaches to ethnographic analysis.

Ethnography

Corey M. Abramson, Jacqueline Joslyn, Katharine A. Rendle, Sarah B. Garrett, Daniel Dohan

How do late-stage cancer patients join an early phase clinical trial? A qualitative investigation of the process.

Journal of Clinical Oncology

Sarah Bracey Garrett, Christopher J Koenig, Daniel Paul Dohan

Standard Versus Simplified Consent Materials for Biobank Participation: Differences in Patient Knowledge and Trial Accrual.

Journal of empirical research on human research ethics : JERHRE

Garrett SB, Murphy M, Wiley J, Dohan D

What advanced cancer patients with limited treatment options know about clinical research: a qualitative study.

Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer

Garrett SB, Koenig CJ, Trupin L, Hlubocky FJ, Daugherty CK, Reinert A, Munster P, Dohan D

Community recommendations on biobank governance: Results from a deliberative community engagement in California.

PloS one

Dry SM, Garrett SB, Koenig BA, Brown AF, Burgess MM, Hult JR, Longstaff H, Wilcox ES, Madrigal Contreras SK, Martinez A, Boyd EA, Dohan D

Engaging Diverse Stakeholders to Inform Biobank Governance.

Biopreservation and biobanking

Murphy M, Garrett SB, Boyd E, Dry S, Dohan D

Interest in initiating an early phase clinical trial: results of a longitudinal study of advanced cancer patients.

Psycho-oncology

Dunn LB, Wiley J, Garrett S, Hlubocky F, Daugherty C, Trupin L, Munster P, Dohan D

The Importance Of Integrating Narrative Into Health Care Decision Making.

Health affairs (Project Hope)

Dohan D, Garrett SB, Rendle KA, Halley M, Abramson C

EngageUC: Developing an Efficient and Ethical Approach to Biobanking Research at the University of California.

Clinical and translational science

Garrett SB, Koenig BA, Brown A, Hult JR, Boyd EA, Dry S, Dohan D, in collaboration with UC BRAID

Linking Broad Consent to Biobank Governance: Support From a Deliberative Public Engagement in California.

The American journal of bioethics : AJOB

Garrett SB, Dohan D, Koenig BA

Social and emotional factors and decisions of advanced cancer patients (ACP) to enter an early-phase (EP) clinical trial.

Journal of Clinical Oncology

Daniel Paul Dohan, James Wiley, Sarah B. Garrett, Laura Trupin, Fay J. Hlubocky, Christopher Daugherty, Anne Reinert, Pamela N. Munster