James Deardorff, MD

Asst Adjunct Professor

James Deardorff is a geriatrician and Assistant Professor in the Division of Geriatrics at UCSF. Dr. Deardorff attended medical school at Saint Louis University, internal medicine residency at Duke University, and geriatrics fellowship at UCSF. Following a 2-year T32 aging research fellowship at UCSF, he joined the division of Geriatrics as research faculty in July 2023. He received training in epidemiology and biostatistics through the 1-year Advanced Training in Clinical Research certificate program at UCSF.

Dr. Deardorff’s research interest involves improving clinical care and decision making for medically complex older adults at critical transition points in their lives, such as a skilled nursing facility admission. He has completed two projects focused on the development of clinical prediction models to predict mortality risk and need for nursing home level of care among persons with dementia.

In his clinical work, Dr. Deardorff provides care for individuals at the Jewish Home skilled nursing facility and in the hospital on the geriatrics-orthopedic surgery co-management service and general geriatrics consult service.

Education
06/2023 - T32 Aging Research Fellow, University of California, San Francisco
06/2021 - Geriatrics Fellowship, University of California, San Francisco
06/2020 - Internal Medicine, Duke University Medical Center
MD, 05/2017 - Medicine, St. Louis University School of Medicine
BS, 06/2013 - Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles
Websites
Publications

  1. Deardorff WJ, Gan S, Jing B, Boscardin WJ, Smith AK, Lee SJ. A Multi-Outcome Prognostic Model for Community-Dwelling Older Adults Admitted to Skilled Nursing Facilities for Post-Acute Care. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 2025. PMID: 40659050


  2. Growdon ME, Jing B, Deardorff WJ, Morris EJ, Boscardin WJ, Blank LJ, Bongiovanni T, Boockvar KS, Steinman MA. Loop diuretics and subsequent use of urinary symptom medications in older adults: evaluation of a possible prescribing cascade. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences 2025. PMID: 40668217


  3. Williams CYK, Subramanian CR, Ali SS, Apolinario M, Askin E, Barish P, Cheng M, Deardorff WJ, Donthi N, Ganeshan S, Huang O, Kantor MA, Lai AR, Manchanda A, Moore KA, Muniyappa AN, Nair G, Patel PP, Santhosh L, Schneider S, Torres S, Yukawa M, Hubbard CC, Rosner BI. Physician- and Large Language Model-Generated Hospital Discharge Summaries. JAMA internal medicine 2025. PMID: 40323616


  4. Deardorff WJ, Jing B, Growdon ME, Motmans B, Boscardin WJ, Blank LJ, Boockvar KS, Steinman MA. Household Wealth and Potentially Inappropriate Medications in Persons With Dementia: Role of Comorbidities and Caregivers. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2025. PMID: 40503752


  5. Jing B, Deardorff WJ, Odden MC. More on Antihypertensive Medications and Cognitive Function in Nursing Home Residents-Reply. JAMA internal medicine 2025. PMID: 39960734


  6. . "Nobody Can Be Equipped for This": Advice From New Residents of Long-Term Care Facilities. . PMID:


  7. Avelino-Silva TJ, Lee SJ, Covinsky KE, Walter LC, Deardorff WJ, Boscardin J, Campora F, Szlejf C, Suemoto CK, Smith AK. External Validation of the Walter Index for Posthospitalization Mortality Prediction in Older Adults. JAMA network open 2025. PMID: 39841475


  8. Jing B, Liu X, Graham LA, Dave CV, Li Y, Fung K, Liu CK, Abdel Magid HS, Growdon ME, Deardorff WJ, Boscardin WJ, Lee SJ, Steinman MA, Odden MC. Deprescribing of Antihypertensive Medications and Cognitive Function in Nursing Home Residents. JAMA internal medicine 2024. PMID: 39312220


  9. Deardorff WJ, Jing B, Growdon ME, Blank LJ, Bongiovanni T, Yaffe K, Boscardin WJ, Boockvar KS, Steinman MA. Impact of hospitalizations on problematic medication use among community dwelling persons with dementia. The journals of gerontology. Series A, Biological sciences and medical sciences 2024. PMID: 39155601


  10. 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. PMID: 38900454


  11. Haimovich AD, Deardorff WJ. From bedside-to-model: Designing clinical prediction rules for implementation. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2024. PMID: 38597114


  12. Growdon ME, Jing B, Morris EJ, Deardorff WJ, Boscardin WJ, Byers AL, Boockvar KS, Steinman MA. Which older adults are at highest risk of prescribing cascades? A national study of the gabapentinoid-loop diuretic cascade. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2024. PMID: 38547357


  13. Deardorff WJ, Jeon SY, Barnes DE, Boscardin WJ, Langa KM, Covinsky KE, Mitchell SL, Lee SJ, Smith AK. Development and External Validation of Models to Predict Need for Nursing Home Level of Care in Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Dementia. JAMA internal medicine 2023. PMID: 38048097


  14. Deardorff WJ, Diaz-Ramirez LG, Boscardin WJ, Smith AK, Lee SJ. Around the EQUATOR with Clin-STAR: Prediction modeling opportunities and challenges in aging research. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2023. PMID: 38032070


  15. Deardorff WJ, Lu K, Jing B, Jeon SY, Boscardin WJ, Fung KZ, Lee SJ. Frequency of Screening for Colorectal Cancer by Predicted Life Expectancy Among Adults 76-85 Years. JAMA 2023. PMID: 37676665


  16. Deardorff WJ, Covinsky K. Incorporating Prognosis into Clinical Decision-Making for Older Adults with Diabetes. Journal of general internal medicine 2023. PMID: 37464148


  17. Deardorff WJ, Jing B, Growdon ME, Yaffe K, Boscardin WJ, Boockvar KS, Steinman MA. Medication misuse and overuse in community-dwelling persons with dementia. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2023. PMID: 37272899


  18. Deardorff WJ, Smith AK, Lee SJ. Improving Clinical Applicability of Mortality Prediction Models Among Persons With Dementia-Reply. JAMA internal medicine 2023. PMID: 36972064


  19. Deardorff WJ, Barnes DE, Jeon SY, Boscardin WJ, Langa KM, Covinsky KE, Mitchell SL, Whitlock EL, Smith AK, Lee SJ. Development and External Validation of a Mortality Prediction Model for Community-Dwelling Older Adults With Dementia. JAMA internal medicine 2022. PMID: 36156062


  20. Nguyen B, Deardorff WJ, Shi Y, Jing B, Lee AK, Lee SJ. Fingerstick glucose monitoring by cognitive impairment status in Veterans Affairs nursing home residents with diabetes. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2022. PMID: 35924668


  21. Deardorff WJ, Jing B, Jeon SY, Boscardin WJ, Lee AK, Fung KZ, Lee SJ. Do functional status and Medicare claims data improve the predictive accuracy of an electronic health record mortality index? Findings from a national Veterans Affairs cohort. 2022. PMID: 35585537


  22. Jing B, Boscardin WJ, Deardorff WJ, Jeon SY, Lee AK, Donovan AL, Lee SJ. Comparing Machine Learning to Regression Methods for Mortality Prediction Using Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record Clinical Data. 2022. PMID: 35352701


  23. Deardorff WJ, Lee SJ. Mild cognitive impairment as a clinical and research outcome: Ready for prime time? 2022. PMID: 35293612


  24. Deardorff WJ, Cenzer I, Nguyen B, Lee SJ. Time to Benefit of Bisphosphonate Therapy for the Prevention of Fractures Among Postmenopausal Women With Osteoporosis: A Meta-analysis of Randomized Clinical Trials. 2021. PMID: 34807231


  25. Deardorff WJ, Binford SS, Cole I, James T, Rathfon M, Rennke S, Wallhagen M. COVID-19, masks, and hearing difficulty: Perspectives of healthcare providers. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2021. PMID: 34228350


  26. Deardorff WJ, Sloane RJ, Pavon JM, Hastings SN, Whitson HE. Hospitalization Risk Among Older Adults with Sensory Impairments: Development of a Prognostic Model. Volume 68 of Issue 11. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2020. PMID: 32852787


  27. Gholkar AA, Schmollinger S, Velasquez EF, Lo YC, Cohn W, Capri J, Dharmarajan H, Deardorff WJ, Gao LW, Abdusamad M, Whitelegge JP, Torres JZ. Regulation of Iron Homeostasis through Parkin-Mediated Lactoferrin Ubiquitylation. Volume 59 of Issue 32. Biochemistry 2020. PMID: 32786404


  28. Deardorff WJ, Liu PL, Sloane R, Van Houtven C, Pieper CF, Hastings SN, Cohen HJ, Whitson HE. Association of Sensory and Cognitive Impairment With Healthcare Utilization and Cost in Older Adults. Volume 67 of Issue 8. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2019. PMID: 30924932


  29. Deardorff WJ, Grossberg GT. Behavioral and psychological symptoms in Alzheimer's dementia and vascular dementia. Volume 165. Handbook of clinical neurology 2019. PMID: 31727229


  30. Deardorff WJ, Grossberg GT. A fixed-dose combination of memantine extended-release and donepezil in the treatment of moderate-to-severe Alzheimer's disease. Volume 10. Drug design, development and therapy 2016. PMID: 27757016


  31. Deardorff WJ, Grossberg GT. Pharmacotherapeutic strategies in the treatment of severe Alzheimer's disease. Volume 17 of Issue 13. Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy 2016. PMID: 27450461


  32. Deardorff WJ, Grossberg GT. Targeting neuroinflammation in Alzheimer's disease: evidence for NSAIDs and novel therapeutics. Volume 17 of Issue 1. Expert review of neurotherapeutics 2016. PMID: 27293026


  33. Nieto RA, Deardorff WJ, Grossberg GT. Efficacy of rivastigmine tartrate, transdermal system, in Alzheimer's disease. Volume 17 of Issue 6. Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy 2016. PMID: 26918774


  34. Deardorff WJ, Feen E, Grossberg GT. The Use of Cholinesterase Inhibitors Across All Stages of Alzheimer's Disease. Volume 32 of Issue 7. Drugs & aging 2015. PMID: 26033268


  35. Gholkar AA, Senese S, Lo YC, Capri J, Deardorff WJ, Dharmarajan H, Contreras E, Hodara E, Whitelegge JP, Jackson PK, Torres JZ. Tctex1d2 associates with short-rib polydactyly syndrome proteins and is required for ciliogenesis. Volume 14 of Issue 7. Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.) 2015. PMID: 25830415


  36. Deardorff WJ, Shobassy A, Grossberg GT. Safety and clinical effects of EVP-6124 in subjects with Alzheimer's disease currently or previously receiving an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor medication. Volume 15 of Issue 1. Expert review of neurotherapeutics 2014. PMID: 25495510


  37. Deardorff WJ, Grossberg GT. A review of the clinical efficacy, safety and tolerability of the antidepressants vilazodone, levomilnacipran and vortioxetine. Volume 15 of Issue 17. Expert opinion on pharmacotherapy 2014. PMID: 25224953