Director of Special Populations and National Clinical Lead, Social Needs

Northwest Permanente

Briar Ertz-Berger, MD, MPH, is an emergency medicine physician and the Director of Special Populations for Northwest Permanente. Dr. Ertz-Berger’s work focuses on eliminating health inequities and the effects of unmitigated socio-economic struggles. Her passion for this work started with serving patients in the Bronx during medical school and continued at OHSU during her residency and subsequent research fellowship where she studied the impact of Medicaid cuts on emergency room utilization. Now at Kaiser Permanente Northwest (KPNW), Dr. Ertz-Berger is leading work to improve health outcomes for KPNW members and the surrounding community through a robust Social Health program, which includes the development an Oregon-wide integrated health and social care network.