Carolyn Rennels, MD

Assistant Clinical Professor

Carolyn Rennels, MD, is a palliative care physician who practices in the outpatient and inpatient clinical settings. Rennels earned her medical degree at UCSF, where she also completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in palliative medicine.

Education
Resident, 06/2023 - Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
MD, 06/2020 - Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
BA, 06/2014 - Human Biology, Stanford University
Fellow, 06/024 - Palliative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Honors and Awards
  • Fellow of the Year - Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, UCSF, 2024
Publications

  1. Rennels CF, Rosow L, Pantilat S, Bell BK, Lomen-Hoerth C, Cohen E, Bischoff KE. Characteristics and Motivations of People With Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Who Pursue Medical Aid in Dying in California. Neurology. Clinical practice 2025. PMID: 40321197


  2. Carolyn Rennels, MD; Steven Z. Pantilat, MD, FAAHPM, MHM; Ambereen K. Mehta, MD MPH FAAMPH; Allison Kestenmaum, MA, MPA, BCC-PCHAC, ACPE; Kelsey Noble, DO; Jessica Besbris, MD; Ali Mendelson, MD; Kara Bischoff, MD. Disproportionate Use of Aid in Dying Among People with ALS: Why ALS aid-in-dying requests are common while ALS is rare Journal of Aid-in-Dying Medicine 2025. PMID:


  3. Lekshmi Santhosh, Carolyn Rennels, Jessica Lee, Christina Mangurian. Health Affairs Forefront Supporting Perinatal Mental Health For Medical Trainees 2024. PMID:


  4. Rennels C, Murthy SG, Handley MA, Morris MD, Alldredge BK, Dahiya P, Jagsi R, Kerns JL, Mangurian C. Informal Caregiving Among Faculty at a Large Academic Health Sciences University in the United States: an Opportunity for Policy Changes. Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry 2023. PMID: 37821717


  5. Carolyn Rennels, MD, Kara E. Bischoff, MD, Eve Cohen, RN, Jeffrey Sicotte, MBA. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management Patient and Caregiver Experiences of Telehealth in an Outpatient Palliative Care Center (QI121) 2023. PMID:


  6. Rennels CF, Barnes DE, Volow A, Shi Y, Li B, Sudore RL. PREPARE for your care and easy-to-read advance directives increase real-time goal concordant care. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2022. PMID: 36214201


  7. Yank V, Rennels C, Linos E, Choo EK, Jagsi R, Mangurian C. Behavioral Health and Burnout Among Physician Mothers Who Care for a Person With a Serious Health Problem, Long-term Illness, or Disability. JAMA internal medicine 2019. PMID: 30688972