Melody Schiaffino, PhD

Dr. Melody Schiaffino an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Public Health at San Diego State University in San Diego, California.  Her work centers on understanding variation and disparities in the organization and delivery of health care. Through the use of survey, spatial, and systems approaches she is able to study the interaction of policies, organizational attributes, and patient outcomes in the context of quality and safety for vulnerable patients. The primary groups of interest are those at greatest risk for cancer-related disparities including vulnerable and foreign-born populations. Dr. Schiaffino studies hospital organizational structures, health system disparities, organizational cultural competence, leadership, and organizational social network approaches as they relate to outcomes. She is currently continuing to build her research area in measuring and contextualizing disparities the organization and delivery of care using comparative systems and spatial approaches as well as the inclusion of location-based sensor technology.