Monthly Newsletter | January 2025

DHM faculty, staff, and fellows kicked 2025 off with some great events! On January 9, we held our annual all-division retreat with a competitive game of Jeopardy and a seminar on Projecting Credibility and Confidence.

The annual after-the-holidays holiday party was on January 10 at Sens restaurant.

A special thanks to all of those who provided clinical coverage during the retreat, and to Rosemary Yau and Eric Ng for their hard work planning both events.

Meet DHM

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

Sajan Patel has been appointed the inaugural Executive Medical Director for Utilization Management at UCSF Health. In this role, Saj will oversee Utilization Management across UCSF Health, recruit and oversee UM Physician Advisors and will work to embed UM into operational, quality, and strategic initiatives. 

Lev Malevanchik was selected to be a Bridges coach.

Omid Shah successfully completed the 2 year long American College of Physicians Guided Fellowship and received his election to be a Fellow of the American College of Physicians this December.

Tanvir Rahman successfully fulfilled the requirements and was elected as a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP). Additionally, he passed the Obesity Medicine boards (ABOM), achieving double board certification.

Welcome DHM New Hire - January 2025

Erik Dove received his medical degree from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital. He loves spending his spare time biking, running, and swimming. Erik’s favorite food is Mission Burrito, and if given the chance to be anywhere right now, you'd find him skiing in Switzerland. He wanted to be a professional skateboarder when he was growing up.

Service Coverage: General Medicine, Cardiology

Community Corner

Welcome to the heart of DHM! This spot is all about keeping you in the loop on all things community—highlights from last month's events, snapshots of fun moments, and a heads-up on what's coming up next month. Keep an eye here for dates, details, and photos that celebrate our DHM community spirit! Reach out to Rosemary Yau to share yours.

Upcoming events:

• February 6, 7-10 pm: Karaoke at Festa - Hospital Medicine & CSB 5-wide Party

December Event Recap:

DOM Holiday Party on December 13

DHM Happy Hour on December 5

DHM-SMH Holiday Happy Hour on December 18

Equity & Belonging in Hospital Medicine

For this month's Equity & Belonging Section we have two opportunities to engage and grow around equity within our UCSF-community:

1. Submissions for the 3rd Annual DOM DEIB Showcase is open! This is a Department of Medicine Zoom-event that celebrates impactful, grassroots DEIB projects and initiatives within DOM divisions. Have something you want to submit?! Submit your project/initiative via this DOM link by Friday, January 24, 2025. 
2. Recruitment for the Research in Implementation Science for Equity (RISE) program is open. RISE is looking for junior faculty who are underrepresented in the biomedical sciences and are conducting cardiovascular or pulmonary disease research with an interest in implementation science, to join the next cohort. For more details about the program and how to apply, please visit https://pridecc.wustl.edu/apply. Application deadline is March 3, 2025.

The PFAC: Updates

Jan Yeager and Ana Abundo joined the December PFAC for feedback on making discussions about a sepsis diagnosis easier between providers and patients/families. We also had a great discussion with med student Brooke on communication materials for a new cancer diagnosis. Brooke has already incorporated some changes to her work based on the feedback of the PFAC. Additionally, the PFAC's grassroots quality improvement project will soon launch in-room QR codes! The QR code will bring patients/families to a PFAC-developed Qualtrics survey with questions aimed at understanding: what's the best method to get feedback on patient experience from patients/families while they are in the hospital. If you see the vinyl sticker you'll know it's from our PFAC work!

And you're invited! We've got two springtime openings at the PFAC: Wednesday March 12th at 6pm and Wednesday April 9th at 6pm are both open! Please email Martha if you'd like to come and get great patient/family feedback on your project, programming, or research.

Signed, the PFAC facilitator team, Jeannie, Mia, Martha & James

Photo of 3 PFAC members, Darryl, Harry, and Michelle

Sofia Weiss Goitiandia, Liz Dzeng, and Julia Axelrod published a commentary in the American Journal of Bioethics on the importance of recognizing the systemic root causes of moral distress and addressing moral distress through systemic interventions.

Liz Dzeng published an invited commentary with UCSF colleagues in the Journal of General Internal Medicine on the ways that community health workers can be used to address the social drivers of health and improve health equity.

Liz Dzeng and a SFGH colleague published a concise report in the Journal of General Internal Medicine on the ways that clinicians conceptualize autonomy and best interest shape their experiences of moral distress

Nancy Choi, James Harrison, Sirisha Narayana, Stephanie Rennke, Peter Barish, and former DHM colleagues (Steph Conner, Jessica Fuller, Sneha Daya) authored a mixed-methods study in the Clinical Teacher on autonomy and supervision in the inpatient clinical learning environment. This study was supported by a DHM internal grant.

Laila Fozouni, Simon Feseha, and Allison Kratka were coauthors on a case report recently published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology Case Reports which evaluated a case of nicardipine-induced hypoxia in a patient with a type B aortic dissection.

Teddy Peng

Thank you Teddy Peng for your thoughtful care of older adults and for your communication and collaboration with many different providers and with the Geriatrics team. Your efforts are appreciated!

-Megan Rathfon

Dr. Peng was amazing how he handled and took care of his discharging patient and his family on 15 Long. He showed professionalism and patience to the family and patient who had lots of last-minute questions and concerns. I could not have asked for a better doctor like him who was amazing how he addressed their anxious thoughts and need during the discharge process. He is what defines caring. I look forward to work with him again!

-Hyejin Kim