A Monthly Digest of Noteworthy Activities and Achievements

UCSF Medical Center was named to the Best Hospitals Honor Roll for 2024-25, and DOM divisions were ranked among the nation’s best in the following specialty areas: geriatrics (#3), pulmonology (#4), cancer (#7), rheumatology (#7), endocrinology (#14), and gastroenterology (#18). Read more here.

UCSF Ranked in Top 5 in Research/Primary Care

In the 2024-2025 U.S. News & World Report annual rankings, the UCSF School of Medicine was the only school ranked in Tier 1 for both research and primary care. UCSF also ranked 11th among the Most Diverse Medical Schools. View rankings here.

New Members Inducted to the AME

Katherine Brooks, Meghana Gadgil, Catherine Lau, Jennifer Mandal, Neil Mehta, Alyssa Perez, David Sears, Geetha Sivasubramanian, Shelene Stine, and Leah Witt-Gaspard (pictured left to right, top to bottom) were elected to the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators.

Other Honors and News

Ted Abraham has been appointed the inaugural clinical chief of cardiology strategy for UCSF Health.

Rahmat Balogun was selected to serve as medical director of occupational health services for UCSF Health.

Chris Barnett was selected to serve as clinical chief of inpatient cardiology for UCSF Health.

Teresa De Marco served on the task force for pulmonary hypertension and heart disease at the World Symposium Pulmonary Hypertension 2024 in Barcelona.

Jessica Pourian was elected president of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Clinical Informatics Fellows.

Rita Redberg has been awarded the UCSF Academic Senate’s 2024-2025 Faculty Research Lecture Award in Social, Behavioral, and Health Policy Sciences.

Isabel Rodriguez-Barraquer received the UCSF Teri Liegler Young Scientist Award.

Monica Yang was selected for the UCSF Irene Perstein Award.

DOM in the News

Louise Aronson discussed cognitive assessments and how some patients who are particularly verbal might incorrectly score as unimpaired (Los Angeles Times). She also wrote about the difficult decision of when to stop working (The Atlantic).

Muriel Babey helped discover a hormone in the brain that keeps the bones of breastfeeding women strong, which could one day be used to treat osteoporosis (Nature, New Scientist, US News & World Report).

Peter Chin-Hong warned that newer variants of Covid may be more transmissible (Scientific American) and that high-risk individuals should continue to get vaccinated (ABC News). He was also featured in a special segment on how he found the love of his life during the pandemic (CBS News).

Stephanie Christenson suggested that those who have cardiovascular conditions should be careful with outdoor activities when the air is smoky (New York Times).

Steven Deeks expressed optimism about a new stem cell treatment that has resulted in several patients possibly cured of HIV infection (NBC News).

Robert Harrison raised awareness of the workers behind the products that we commonly buy, and their risk of illness (Los Angeles Times).

Margot Kushel discussed homelessness, budgets, and California’s structural deficit (Los Angeles Times). She also warned about populations that cannot afford rent (Washington Post) and that we are far from meeting housing needs (San Francisco Chronicle).

Pamela Ling explained that nicotine products that don’t contain tobacco are just as difficult to quit as those that do, and are still extremely harmful (CNN).

Michael Peluso reviewed a longitudinal study on Covid and found that, while symptoms may depend on the variant, vaccination is still the best protection against long Covid (Stat News).

Rita Redberg warned that we need more publicly available data on the risks and benefits of weight-loss drugs such as Wegovy (NBC News).

Vivek Rudrapatna explained his work on Project Zebra to combine data sets and train machine-learning models to help diagnose rare diseases such as acute hepatic porphyria (KCBS).

Dean Schillinger published a book on his experience at ZSFG, its role in the community, and the importance of developing a connection with patients to learn details that could impact their treatment plans (New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle).

Elizabeth Schrier analyzed Medicare cost reports on hospitals acquired by private equity and found those hospitals’ assets fell by 24% in the first two years (Washington Post).

Hilary Seligman spearheaded EatSF and Vouchers 4 Veggies, two initiatives aimed at improving the diet of low-income populations (TIME).

Diana Thiara warned that much of the information about weight-loss drugs like Ozempic comes from highly flawed studies (New York Times).

Zian Tseng described UCSF’s progress on reaching underserved populations through the UCSF Asian Health Institute (ABC News).

Bob Wachter expressed his hope that advanced AI technology will eventually enable insurers and providers to automate authorization processes (New York Times).

SPIROMICS Grant

Prescott Woodruff and his team were awarded $49.4M over seven years for their SubPopulations and InteRmediate Outcome Measures in COPD Study (SPIROMICS) III grant. The project aims to identify treatment strategies for COPD and develop approaches to prevent the progression of the disease.

Other Recent Grants of Note

Kimberly Koester: a grant of $2M over four years from the California HIV/AIDS Research Program for a project entitled, “Breaking barriers: building equitable access to long-acting injectable PrEP in Sacramento & Fresno.”

Jason Satterfield: a grant of $1.2M over three years from the UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program for a project entitled, “Technology-assisted motivational interviewing coach for smoking cessation: the TAMI Coach.”

Maya Vijayaraghavan: a grant of $1.2M over three years from the UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program for a project entitled, “Extended intervention for tobacco use (EXIT) for people experiencing homelessness.”

Recent Publications of Note

Abbott R, Landsiedel K, Atukunda M... Chamie G, Hahn JA... Havlir DV, Charlebois E... Marquez C. Incident tuberculosis infection is associated with alcohol use in adults in rural uganda. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Jun 02. Epub ahead of print. PubMed Citation

Brooks KC, Raffel KE, Chia D, Karwa A, Hubbard CC, Auerbach AD, Ranji SR. Stigmatizing language, patient demographics, and errors in the diagnostic process. JAMA Intern Med. 2024;184:704-706. PubMed Citation

Collins LF, Sheth AN, Tisdale T... Philbin MM. Interest in and preference for long-acting injectable antiretroviral therapy in the era of approved cabotegravir/rilpivirine among reproductive-aged women in the U.S. South. Clin Infect Dis. 2024 Jun 29. Epub ahead of print. PubMed Citation

Holtzman JN, Redberg RF. Prioritizing women's inclusion in clinical trials of medical devices. JAMA Intern Med. 2024;184:979-980. PubMed Citation

Huang AJ, Grady D, Mody L. Recurrent urinary tract infection in older outpatient women. JAMA Intern Med. 2024;184:971-972. PubMed Citation

Kratka A, Redberg RF. Coronary in-stent restenosis treated with paclitaxel-coated balloon vs uncoated balloon. JAMA. 2024;332:169. PubMed Citation

Ku E, Tighiouart H, McCulloch CE... Association between acute declines in estimated glomerular filtration rate during Renin-Angiotensin System inhibition and risk of adverse outcomes. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2024 Jun 18. Epub ahead of print. PubMed Citation

Lin GA, Coffman JM, Phillips KA. The state of state biomarker testing insurance coverage laws. JAMA. 2024;331:1885-1886. PubMed Citation

Marcus GM, Curfman G, Bibbins-Domingo K. The first clinical test for calcium release deficiency syndrome? JAMA. 2024;332:214. PubMed Citation

Nayak RR, Orellana DA. The impact of the human gut microbiome on the treatment of autoimmune disease. Immunol Rev. 2024 Jun 12. Epub ahead of print. PubMed Citation

Neyton LPA, Patel RK, Sarma A... Kangelaris KN, Eckalbar WL, Erle DJ... Hendrickson CM, Woodruff PG, Langelier CR, Calfee CS, Fragiadakis GK. Distinct pulmonary and systemic effects of dexamethasone in severe COVID-19. Nat Commun. 2024;15:5483. PubMed Citation

Patanwala MY, Garcia CM, Kushel M. Health care for people experiencing homelessness. JAMA. 2024;332:70-71. PubMed Citation

Zhang GY, Rubin JB. Rethinking drug-induced liver injury—a new era of pharmacovigilance. JAMA Intern Med. 2024;184:952-953. PubMed Citation

Zimbroff RM, Deardorff WJ, Song S, Nikolov MC, Growdon ME. Use of a financial incentive code for in-home COVID-19 vaccination of homebound older adults. JAMA. 2024;332:252-254. PubMed Citation


View all 204 DOM-authored publications from last month.

Featured Events

New Faculty Orientation Sessions
The orientation provides an opportunity to meet DOM leadership and hear from a panel of early-career faculty on their top tips for thriving at UCSF.
Various dates at various locations.
Click here for more information.

Faculty Resource Fair and Development Day
Faculty – at all career stages – are encouraged to attend this highly acclaimed event hosted by Campus Council on Faculty Life (CCFL).
Monday, September 9 | 4:00 pm-6:00 pm
Click here for more information.

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