Sagar Dommaraju

Sagar is a graduate student in the Masters of Global Health program at the University of California-San Francisco (UCSF). He recently graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a BS in mathematics. He has always been interested in how quantitative analyses can be applied to medicine and healthcare. Upon graduating from UCSF, he will return to Chicago to begin medical school.

For his capstone project, Sagar seeks to determine which attributes of differentiated care models are most important to patients with HIV in Kisumu, Kenya. Differentiated care models attempt to address two shortcomings of the current HIV treatment in sub-Saharan Africa: (1) that the health systems are overburdened and (2) that treatment is not tailored to meet an individual patient’s needs. Several differentiated care models have been proposed. In order to help policy makers decide which care models to implement, it is essential to understand which attributes are most important to patients. Examples of attributes include frequency of antiretroviral drug refills, location of drug refills, frequency of clinical visits, and presence or lack of social support.

Sagar will develop his questionnaire using the Choice-Based Conjoint feature of Sawtooth Software. Partnering with UCSF, San Francisco General Hospital, and the FACES HIV clinic in Lumumba Health Centre in Kisumu, he will survey approximately 200 patients to complete his study. Long-term, his work can help implementation scientists determine how to optimize care models for patients in Kenya.