How UCSF Project Manager Mansi Dedhia Brings Empathy to Every Interaction

Most of us ignore phone calls from unknown numbers, but Mansi Dedhia, MSc., MPH, has a way of getting people to pick up—and stay on the line.

As a Project Manager at UCSF’s Center for Excellence in Primary Care (CEPC), Dedhia often reaches out to patients she’s never met to recruit them for research studies. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, she connected with more than 400 patients as part of the Pulmonary Specialist–Health Coach Consultation (PuSHCon) project, which had to quickly pivot to a remote format in 2020.

“It's hard to get people to commit to a remote meeting,” said Abby Cabrera, MPH, CEPC Associate Director of Research and Community Engagement, and Dedhia’s supervisor. “But Mansi builds immediate rapport. She has a special touch, and participants feel safe enough to stay on the phone with her.”

And it’s clear why: Dedhia exudes warmth and kindness. It doesn’t take much time to see how her empathy and compassion can quickly build trusting, positive relationships.

Originally from India, Dedhia pursued a career in nutrition and earned a Master of Human Nutrition from the University of Glasgow in 2010. After several years practicing in India, she moved to San Francisco in 2013. When her degree wasn’t recognized in the U.S., she enrolled at the University of San Francisco to earn a Master of Public Health, seeing it not as a setback but as a chance to expand her impact.

“I loved being a nutritionist,” Dedhia said. “But I wondered how I could make a larger impact and help people meet their healthcare needs beyond just diet.”

After several internships, Dedhia joined UCSF as an Assistant Clinical Research Coordinator (CRC) in the Behavioral Diabetes Research Group (BDRG) in the Department of Family & Community Medicine. She steadily progressed to Clinical Research Coordinator and then transitioned to the CEPC in 2020, becoming the first research associate to join the newly remote PuSHCon team.

The five-year PuSHCon study aimed to recruit patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, which was particularly challenging at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dedhia played a crucial part in helping successfully launch the study and start attaining targeted recruitment numbers right away. With only two touch points – an initial recruitment phone call and then a follow-up survey four months later – Dedhia always managed to engage participants.

Another CEPC project, Access to Care, was particularly meaningful to Dedhia. The study design was created, implemented, conducted, analyzed, and disseminated within a year, a relatively short time for such a project. The statewide study sought to survey parents of pediatric patients with special healthcare needs to understand and assess the families’ access to care and its impact on them. Working with 17 family resource centers statewide, Dedhia oversaw outreach that yielded 646 eligible responses in just two months—and filtered out more than 1,500 fraudulent or duplicate responses using an algorithm she helped develop, followed by extensive manual review.

“Mansi combed through every single response,” said Cabrera. “She really cares, and she goes above and beyond with her attention to detail and effort, whether it’s cleaning data or being flexible to meet with respondents.”

While Dedhia doesn’t view her work as directly changing outcomes, she finds meaning in gathering and delivering data that enables others to make an impactful difference.

“Being able to listen to the respondents – that’s why I’m on this path. If I see someone’s pain, I just want to do something about it – even if it’s in the tiniest way,” she said.

After nearly eight years at UCSF, Dedhia continues to find meaning in her work and thrive in a role that pushes her to learn, grow, and serve. Her colleagues admire her adaptability and calm confidence. She, in turn, credits her teams.

“Everyone contributed to my growth,” she said. “All of my UCSF teams have been amazing. I hope I can stay here forever.”