Pramita Kuruvilla, MD

Associate Professor

Pramita Kuruvilla, MD, FAAFP, HEC-C, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at UCSF, where she works clinically with the Symptom Management Service at the Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and the inpatient Palliative Care Service.

Dr. Kuruvilla earned her medical degree at Yale University School of Medicine and completed a family medicine residency at UCSF-affiliated Contra Costa Regional Medical Center (CCRMC). She completed a leadership fellowship through America's Essentials Hospitals and a clinical fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at UCSF. She is board-certified in Family Medicine and Hospice and Palliative Medicine, and she has earned her Healthcare Ethics Consultant-Certified Credential.

Prior to joining UCSF, Dr. Kuruvilla worked for many years as an ICU physician and Bioethics consultant, and she has extensive experience caring for patients and families navigating critical illness. Previously, she was the Assistant Medical Director of CCRMC Critical Care Services, Chair of the CCRMC Bioethics Committee, and a volunteer with Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in peri-civil war Côte d'Ivoire. She currently serves on the MSF-USA DEI Council.

Dr. Kuruvilla's academic interests include Serious Illness Communication, Medical Education, Bioethics, Global Health, Leadership Development, Narrative Medicine, and Clinician Wellbeing.

Education
2024 - Teaching Scholars Program, University of California, San Francisco
2022 - Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, University of California, San Francisco
2020 - Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California, San Francisco
2014 - Leadership Fellowship, America's Essentials Hospitals
2007 - Chief Resident, Contra Costa Family Medicine Residency Program
MD, 2004 - School of Medicine, Yale University
BA, 1999 - French, University of Southern California
1998 - Art History, Université de Paris IV, La Sorbonne
Publications

  1. Kuruvilla P. BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care OP-5 A Novel Curriculum: Incorporating Transformative Learning Theory-based Narrative Medicine Modules into Palliative Care Physician Training 2024. PMID:


  2. Kuruvilla P. When the Boards Fail Us-Structural Bias in Certification Examinations. JAMA internal medicine 2024. PMID: 38345810


  3. Kim J, Rewal M, Kuruvilla P. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management Sliding Doors: The Ethics of Patient Preferences for Providers from Different Backgrounds 2023. PMID:


  4. Pramita Kuruvilla, MD. End of life ethics and the importance of doing the right thing End of life ethics and the importance of doing the right thing 2012. PMID:


  5. Michael H. Farrell
    Pramita Kuruvilla
    Kerry L. Eskra
    Stephanie A. Christopher
    Rebecca S. Brienza. A method to quantify and compare clinicians' assessments of patient understanding during counseling of standardized patients Patient education and counseling 2009. PMID:


  6. Michael H Farrell
    Pramita Kuruvilla. Assessment of parental understanding by pediatric residents during counseling after newborn genetic screening Archives of pediatrics & adolescent medicine 2008. PMID:


  7. Kuruvilla, P. Resident Physicians' Assessment of Patient Understanding in Complex Risk Communication Resident Physicians' Assessment of Patient Understanding in Complex Risk Communication 2004. PMID: