Dr. Antonio Sarria-Santamera is a physician dedicated to improving population health, through understanding what works in Medicine and developing high-performing health delivery systems.

His research focuses primarily to provide science-based insights to strengthen health care systems, improving quality and performance, with a very special emphasis on strengthening Primary Care. He has published widely in this field and has led several national and EU projects.

His work in the area of implementation is based on the principle that for sustainable quality improvement is essential to understand the influence of the local organizational culture, which determines how individuals learn, interconnect, self-organize, and co-evolve with their environment, usually in non-linear dynamic ways.

Antonio graduated from Universidad de Zaragoza Faculty of Medicine, Spain, where he also received his PhD and obtained his specialization in Public Health Medicine from Hospital La Paz, in Madrid, Spain. He was a Fulbright Fellow at the Department of Community and Family Medicine at Dartmouth Medical School. He has also been a Visiting Scientist at Duke Clinical Health Policy Research Center. He has had clinical and health policy positions in Spain. He was a Senior Scientist at Instituto de Salud Carlos III, where he was the Director of Health Technology Assessment for 10 years, as well as Associate Professor at Universidad de Alcala Faculty of Medicine.

He has mentored many doctoral, masters level students, and medical residents. Dr. Sarria-Santamera is a member of EUPHA, European Forum of Primary Care and ISPOR.

Health services research; Implementation; Primary Health Care; Diabetes; COVID-19

1. Wagner M, Samaha D, Casciano R, Brougham M, Abrishami P, Petrie C, Avouac B, Mantovani L, Sarría-Santamera A, Kind P, Schlander M, Tringali M. Moving Towards Accountability for Reasonableness – A Systematic Exploration of the Features of Legitimate Healthcare Coverage Decision-Making Processes Using Rare Diseases and Regenerative Therapies as a Case Study. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2019 8;8(7):424-443. doi: 10.15171/ijhpm.2019.24. PubMed PMID: 31441279.
2. Prado-Galbarro FJ, Gamiño-Arroyo AE, Sánchez-Piedra C, Sánchez-Pájaro A, Sarría-Santamera A. Evaluation of the effect of hospitalization on mortality in patients with heart failure followed in primary care. Arch Cardiol Mex. 2019;89(2):130-137. doi: 10.24875/ACM.M19000022.
3. Valderas JM, Gangannagaripalli J, Nolte E, Boyd CM, Roland M, Sarria-Santamera A, Jones E, Rijken M. Quality of care assessment for people with multimorbidity. J Intern Med. 2019;285(3):289-300. doi: 10.1111/joim.12881.
4. Goetghebeur MM, Wagner M, Samaha D, O’Neil W, Badgley D, Castro-Jaramillo H, Abrishami P, Sarria-Santamera A, Cleemput I, Tringali M. Exploring values of health technology assessment agencies using reflective multicriteria and rare disease case. Int J Technol Assess Health Care. 2017;33(4):504-520. doi: 10.1017/S0266462317000915. Epub 2017 Oct 11.
5. Prado-Galbarro FJ, Del-Cura-González I, Garrido-Elustondo S, Gamiño-Arroyo AE, Sánchez-Piedra C, Sarriá Santamera A. A Comparison of Methods for Modeling Factors Associated with Hospital Admissions in Incident Cases of Heart Failure. Rev Esp Salud Publica. 2017 24;91. pii: e201705034.
6. Sanchez-Piedra CA, Jaruseviciene L, Prado-Galbarro FJ, Liseckiene I, Sánchez-Alonso F, García-Pérez S, Sarria Santamera A. Factors associated with professional satisfaction in primary care: Results from EUprimecare project. Eur J Gen Pract. 2017;23(1):114-120. doi: 10.1080/13814788.2017.1305350.
7. Sarría-Santamera A, Hijas-Gómez AI, Carmona R, Gimeno-Feliú LA. A systematic review of the use of health services by immigrants and native populations. Public Health Rev. 2016;37:28. doi: 10.1186/s40985-016-0042-3. eCollection 2016.
8. Blaya-Nováková V, Prado-Galbarro FJ, Sarría-Santamera A. Effects of annual influenza vaccination on mortality in patients with heart failure. Eur J Public Health. 2016;26(5):890-892. Epub 2016 Sep 10.
9. Cimas M, Ayala A, García-Pérez S, Sarria-Santamera A, Forjaz MJ. The patient satisfaction questionnaire of EUprimecare project: measurement properties. Int J Qual Health Care. 2016;28(3):275-80. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzw024. Epub 2016 Mar 18.
10. Pérez-López P, Baré M, Touma-Fernández Á, Sarría-Santamera A. Relationship between volume and in-hospital mortality in digestive oncological surgeryCir Esp. 2016;94(3):151-8. doi: 10.1016/j.ciresp.2015.09.005. Epub 2015 Nov 23.