A Monthly Digest of Noteworthy Activities and Achievements

UCSF Medical Center was named to the Best Hospitals Honor Roll for 2023-24, and DOM divisions were ranked among the nation’s best in the following specialty areas: geriatrics (#4), cancer (#7), rheumatology (#7), pulmonology (#8), endocrinology (#13), and gastroenterology (#29). Read the full rankings.

Honors and News

Gina Solomon was named chief of the Division of Occupational, Environmental, and Climate Medicine.

Natalya Maisel was appointed inaugural manager of the Division of Clinical Informatics & Digital Transformation (DoC-IT).

New Members of the Academy of Medical Educators

Sam Brondfield, Robin Goldman, Lisa Ochoa-Frongia, Iris Otani, Yalda Shahram, and Mia Williams (pictured left to right, top to bottom) were elected to the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators.

New Fellowship Program Directors

The DOM has three new fellowship program directors this year (pictured left to right): Priya Kathpalia (Gastroenterology), Madhu Rao (Endocrinology), and Aarthi Sabanayagam (Adult Congenital Heart Disease). See the complete list of program directors.

Other Honors and News

Elisabeth Askin is co-author of the third edition of The Health Care Handbook, a popular introductory overview of the U.S. healthcare system.

Margaret Chesney received the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research (ABMR).

Sanket Dhruva received the Greenwall Fellowship in Bioethics from the National Academy of Medicine.

Joanne Engel was selected as an American Society for Microbiology Distinguished Lecturer.

Monica Gandhi is the author of Endemic: A Post-Pandemic Playbook. She discussed the book in interviews with the Mercury News and the San Francisco Chronicle.

Bassem Ghali and Sunny Kishore successfully advocated for the inclusion of oral acamprosate and both oral and injectable naltrexone in the World Health Organization’s Essential Medicines List (EML).

Introducing DOMiNews!

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DOM in the News

Peter Chin-Hong was interviewed by ABC News and the Los Angeles Times on the current state of Covid and the ongoing need for vaccination. He also discussed a tornado-damaged Pfizer facility potentially worsening drug shortages on CNN.

On NBC News, Steven Deeks described how chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant may have contributed to a patient’s HIV cure.

Sheiphali Gandhi, featured on NPR and Live Science, cautioned about irreversible, sometimes fatal, lung disease in workers caused by dust from quartz countertop fabrication.

A. Jay Holmgren was interviewed by NPR regarding his research showing that doctors are becoming overwhelmed by patient inbox messages.

Franklin Huang, in an interview with STAT News, assessed barriers hindering increased participation of racial and ethnic minorities in clinical trials.

Elaine Khoong discussed the importance of physician-physician collaboration in clinical decision-making with Time.

Sunny Kishore, appearing on the House Calls podcast with Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, reiterated the positive health effects of social connections and friendship.

Margot Kushel’s research findings into homelessness and its potential solutions were showcased on PBS, CNN, the New York Times’ Ezra Klein podcast, and numerous other news platforms.

Annie Luetkemeyer shared her expertise on NPR, discussing the safety and effectiveness of doxy-PEP in reducing sexually transmitted infections.

In an interview with CBS News, Dean Schillinger criticized the NIH’s decision to halt a planned major initiative on scientific misinformation.

Hilary Seligman detailed the health implications of food insecurity in an interview with the Mercury News.

Bob Wachter’s perspectives on Covid, along with the current pandemic status and AI’s role in medicine, were featured on CNN, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Mercury News and the Medscape podcast.

Allison Webber emphasized the escalating need for kidney donors in an interview with Fox KTVU.

Eric Widera and Sei Lee were quoted in the New York Times, making the point that age alone is not a sufficiently accurate prognosticator for decision-making among seniors.

Recent Grants of Note

Jacquelyn Maher and team: a grant of $8M over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases for a project entitled, “Establishing patient-derived iPSCs as a platform for discovery research in NAFLD.”

Joanne Engel and team: a grant of $3.7M over five years from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a project entitled, “Finding the way: Sensory adaptation during bacterial mechanotransduction.”

Matthew Springer and team: a grant of $3.5M over five years from the National Institute on Drug Abuse for a project entitled, “Effects of chronic marijuana use on endothelial function.”

Recent Publications of Note

Abelman RA, Fitzpatrick J, Zawedde J, Sanyu I, Byanyima P, Kaswabuli S, Musisi E, Hsieh J, Gardner K, Zhang M, Byanova KL, Sessolo A, Hunt PW, Lalitha R, Davis JL, Crothers K, Worodria W, Huang L. Sex modifies the risk of HIV-associated obstructive lung disease in Ugandans post-pneumonia. AIDS. [Epub ahead of print]. 2023 Jun 20. doi: 10.1097​/​QAD.00000​0000000​3626. >> PubMed Citation

Chammas D. The stories we tell ourselves. JAMA. 2023 Jun 20;329(23):2019-2020. doi: 10.1001/jama.2023.8543. >> PubMed Citation

Dy M, Olazo K, Lisker S, Brown E, Saha A, Weinberg J, Sarkar U. Virtual reality for chronic pain management among historically marginalized populations: Systematic review of usability studies. J Med Internet Res. 2023 Jun 6;25:e40044. doi: 10.2196/40044.
>> PubMed Citation

Kaltenbach T, Patel SG, Nguyen-Vu T, Malvar C, Keswani RN, Hall M, Aagaard E, Asokkumar R, Chin YK, Hammad H, Rastogi A, Shergill A, Simon V, Soetikno A, Soetikno R, Wani S. Varied trainee competence in cold snare polypectomy — results of the COMPLETE randomized controlled trial. Am J Gastroenterol. 2023 Jun 13. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.14309/ajg.0000000000002368. >> PubMed Citation

Ko AH. Flashback foreword: KRAS is a selection marker for panitumumab benefit in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. J Clin Oncol. 2023 Jun 20;41(18):3275-3276. doi: 10.1200/JCO.23.00221. >> PubMed Citation

Landovitz RJ, Scott H, Deeks SG. Prevention, treatment and cure of HIV infection. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2023 Jun 21. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1038​/​s41579​-​023​-​00914​-1. >> PubMed Citation

Nguyen TTT, Lu W, Zhu WS, Ansel KM, Liang HE, Weiss A. Stimulation of ectopically expressed muscarinic receptors induces IFN-γ but suppresses IL-2 production by inhibiting activation of pAKT pathways in primary T cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2023 Jun 20;120(25):e2300987120. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1073/ pnas.2300987120. >> PubMed Citation

Schmid P, Cortes J, Joaquim A, Jañez NM, Morales S, Díaz-Redondo T, Blau S, Neven P, Lemieux J, García-Sáenz JÁ, Hart L, Biyukov T, Baktash N, Massey D, Burris HA 3rd, Rugo HS. XENERA-1: A randomised double-blind Phase II trial of xentuzumab in combination with everolimus and exemestane versus everolimus and exemestane in patients with hormone receptor-positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer and non-visceral disease. Breast Cancer Res. 2023 Jun 12;25(1):67. doi: 10.1186/s13058-023-01649-w. >> PubMed Citation

Suliman S. BCG: From veins to correlates. Cell Host Microbe. 2023 Jun 14;31(6):921-923. doi: 10.1016/j.chom.2023.05.021. >> PubMed Citation

Tapper EB, Lai JC. Time to embrace PROMIS-29 as the standard health-related quality of life instrument for patients with cirrhosis. Hepatology. 2023 Jun 7. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1097​/​HEP.​00000000​00000508. >> PubMed Citation

See all 182 DOM-authored publications from last month.

Department of Medicine Women’s Group

Did you know there is a Department of Medicine Women’s Group? Our goal is to create a vibrant and inclusive community fostering empowerment, networking, and support for all women-identifying faculty members within our department. To stay updated on upcoming events and opportunities, sign up for our listserv by emailing [email protected].

Featured Events

Ellen F. Hughes Lectureship on Clinician Well-Being
Wednesday, September 13, 2023 · 12pm-1pm
Featuring guest speaker James S. Gordon, MD, author of Transforming Trauma: The Path to Hope and Healing.
To attend in person: Email [email protected]
To attend on Zoom: More information and Zoom link

Faculty Development Day
Thursday, September 21, 2023 · 9am-4pm
Offering virtual workshops for professional development and resources to enhance faculty life at UCSF. This event is relevant to faculty at all career stages.
Register for Faculty Development Day

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