Biography
Amanda Sammann, MD, MPH is an Assistant Professor of general surgery at the University of California, San Francisco and the Founder and Executive Director of The Better Lab; a venture that uses design to study and fix health care challenges. Dr. Sammann is a general surgeon who practices trauma surgery, acute care surgery and surgical critical care at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG).
Dr. Sammann received a bachelor's degree in human biology from Stanford University, a Masters in Public Health from Columbia University and a Medical Degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). She completed her surgical training at UCSF and her critical care fellowship at Oregon Health & Sciences University. Dr. Sammann also spent two years as the Medical Fellow and Medical Director at the Silicon Valley design firm, IDEO.
Dr. Sammann has spent a lifetime trying to make things better. She has built novel content for health websites, developed surgical training curriculum, designed medical products and fixed dozens of health care systems challenges. Dr. Sammann has expertise in Human Centered Design (HCD) and is leading research at ZSFG to implement and study the HCD process in the health care setting. She lectures on innovation and design locally and nationally.
Education
Institution | Degree | Dept or School | End Date |
---|---|---|---|
University of California, San Francisco | M.D. | Medicine | 2008 |
Board Certifications
American Board of Surgery, General Surgery
American Board of Surgery, Surgical Critical Care
Clinical Expertise
General Surgery
Trauma Surgery
Acute Care Surgery
Surgical Critical Care
Program Affiliations
The Better Lab
In the News
Research Narrative
Dr. Sammann is the Founder and Executive Director of The Better Lab, a multidisciplinary venture that conducts human centered design research. The goal of her research is to develop new ways to fix health care challenges through greater empathy and better design and to study these novel methods and their outcomes with rigorous public health methodologies. Early research initiatives are focused on health care systems quality improvement at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
Research Interests
Quality Improvement and Outcomes
Innovation
Human Centered Design
Implementation Sciences
Trauma Care
Underserved Populations
Transitions of Care
Shared Decision Making
Surgical and Medical Education
Publications
- Designing equitable telehealth solutions for outpatient surgical care in a safety-net population: a human-centered design approach.| | PubMed
- Disparities in well-being outcomes among medical students: a comparative study between medical students with and without disability.| | PubMed
- Popular but precarious: low helmet use among shared micromobility program riders in San Francisco.| | PubMed
- Design Thinking in Undergraduate Medical Education.| | UCSF Research Profile
- Using Human-Centered Design to Improve Serious Illness Care for Older Adults With Advanced Dementia.| | PubMed
- Evaluating the implementation of weekly rifapentine-isoniazid (3HP) for tuberculosis prevention among people living with HIV in Uganda: A qualitative evaluation of the 3HP Options Trial.| | PubMed
- The Reality of Living with Gun Violence: The Impact of Second-Hand Gun Smoke on Sleep and Health.| | PubMed
- Medical students in distress: a mixed methods approach to understanding the impact of debt on well-being.| | PubMed
- Evaluating the implementation of weekly rifapentine-isoniazid (3HP) for tuberculosis prevention among people living with HIV in Uganda: A qualitative evaluation of the 3HP Options Trial.| | PubMed
- Comparison of 3 optimized delivery strategies for completion of isoniazid-rifapentine (3HP) for tuberculosis prevention among people living with HIV in Uganda: A single-center randomized trial.| | PubMed