Dr Derrett, who works within the university's injury prevention research unit, received the only $107,000 fellowship in healthcare policy and practice awarded in Australasia this year.
The fellowship was a "great opportunity", she said.
Dr Derrett, who leaves in July, said she did not know yet whether her research will be carried out in New York or Chicago.
It was a good time to study this question in the United States because many services were being reorganised with the aim of improving the co-ordination of care.
Often when people looked at such issues they did so from the the perspective of clinicians and managers and "not so much from the people going through these systems".
Her research would include interviews with patients and their families as well as analysis of data related to how patients moved through services.
She is interested in the barriers or perceived barriers there might be to receiving care, including affordability.
The information gathered could be relevant to the burgeoning development of integrated family health centres in New Zealand where a variety of health services, which can include some hospital level care, are provided from one site.
Her interest in the topic she will explore in the US arose from her involvement in a longitudinal study looking at the outcomes of 2860 moderately to seriously injured New Zealanders.
When patients had more than one condition, "how do they cope with the complexities of healthcare systems," particularly when they had to move between various healthcare providers?
Dr Derrett, whose earlier career was as a nurse, has concentrated on the effect of health systems and services on patients during her academic career.
