Monthly Newsletter | December 2023

As the year comes to a close, we extend our heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering dedication and exceptional contributions to UCSF and the DHM. Your hard work and commitment have made a profound impact on our mission to deliver outstanding and equitable healthcare, research, and medical education. Wishing you a joyous holiday season filled with well-deserved rest, and a New Year brimming with continued success and happiness. Thank you for all you do.

- Margaret, Brad, and Annie

Meet DHM

Get to know our division by reading our faculty and staff interviews!

Sujatha Sankaran is the author of a new Springer volume, "Health Equity in Hospital Medicine: Foundations, Populations, and Action" available for online viewing. The volume is comprehensive in addressing the full range of social determinants that impact healthcare, and offers a balanced framework for hospital medicine physicians. If you'd like a physical copy, please email [email protected].

Welcome DHM New Hires - December 2023

Qiongqiong (Christina) Yang

Christina earned her medical degree from University of Texas Southwestern and completed her residency at Saint Vincent Hospital. She enjoys being active, such as hiking, swimming, beach volleyball, kayaking, biking and dancing. Her favorite TV show is "Too hot to Handle." When she was 10 years old, Christina wanted to be a superhero in a white coat.

Service Coverage: General Medicine

Kreshnik (Kresh) Zejnullahu

Kresh earned his medical degree from University of Massachusetts and completed his residency at UCSF. He loves spending time with his family, and when possible, Kresh likes to run, bike, and go climbing (not necessarily in that order). His trusted companion is the sweetest dog ever, Kiki (short for Kikiriki, which means peanut in Albanian). If he could be anywhere right this minute, it would be Joshua Tree National Park.

Service Coverage: General Medicine

Upcoming DHM Social Activities

• DHM Winter Gathering on Sunday, December 17 from 12-3 pm at the San Francisco Zoo (Sloat Blvd at the Great Highway).
• DHM Staff/Faculty Retreat on Thursday, January 11 from 12-5 pm at City Lights & Golden Gate Room, Millbury Union.
• DHM Annual After-the-Holidays Holiday Party on Friday, January 12 from 6-10 pm at Vault Garden, Plaza Level (555 California St, San Francisco).

A "pearl" in promoting Equity and Belonging is a short, action-oriented, topic that aims to raise awareness, increase concern, and share strategies to mitigate our institutional inequities and promote inclusion.

As the winter holidays approach, we are receiving invitations for holiday celebrations, we are seeing decorations and trees going up around town, and some of us are seeing patients in the hospital during the days of Hanukkah, on the Night of Yalda, on Christmas day, Human Right Day, Kwanzaa, and Western New Years. 

Reflect on how you are supporting a SAFE and WELCOMING space for all your colleagues, patients, peers, learners, and other people who are in the same space at this time with you.

To share your reflections, provide feedback or comments, or to share pearls for the next DHM newsletter, please email [email protected]. 

Matt Tierney co-authored a narrative review published in Substance Abuse on patient and provider attitudes toward cannabis. Authors present action steps grounded in empirical evidence that may aid clinicians in the goal of discussing cannabis use with clients.

Logan Pierce, Tim Judson, and Michelle Mourad were coauthors on a new paper recently published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine describing a predictable change in Average Daily Census (ADC) that depends only on the time-of-day the measurement is taken. This is important for hospitalist groups (like ours) where compensation and resource allocation are based on ADC.

Akshay Ravi, Ben Weia, Leo Liu, Matt Sakumoto, and Aris Oates (Pediatrics) were coauthors on a paper accepted to Applied Clinical Informatics Open describing how they created and developed the GME Clinical Informatics and Data Science Pathway at UCSF.

Matt Tierney co-authored a publication in Journal of Substance Use and Addiction Treatment on qualitative research findings regarding barriers to the treatment of opioid use disorder.

Prashant Patel was a coauthor on a recent monograph published in Medical Science Educator which outlined a novel "Clerkship Chief" elective which enables senior medical students to act as near-peer mentors and to augment core clerkship education in order to explore career paths in leadership and medical education.

Matt Tierney and co-investigators published an article in Journal of Addictions Nursing describing the curricular design and initial outcomes for a novel course at the UCSF School of Nursing that teaches skills and approaches for delivering OUD treatment to marginalized populations, with a focus on BIPOC communities, rural communities and transition age youth.

Yumiko Abe-Jones

"Thank you Yumiko Abe-Jones for working with us on the data for our food insecurity screening project — it made all the difference to see how our work impacted screening!"

- Stephanie Rennke, Lei Choi, Catherine Lau, Anna Chang, and the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship Team

Saj Patel

"Thank you Saj Patel! Since I was out on paternity leave, I didn't get a chance to focus on our SHM abstract and had to work on it over the last few days. He took the time and effort to help me edit the abstract literally up to the last minute, and I can't thank him enough for his support and input! Definitely went beyond the call of duty."

- Teddy Peng