Monthly Newsletter | January 2026 | | |
Ayoda Werede (December 2025)
Ayoda received her medical degree from Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine, completed her residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and most recently served as a hospitalist on faculty at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She currently resides in Oakland and spends her spare time reading books and going on hikes. Her favorite TV show is The Great British Baking Show. On Sunday mornings, you can usually find her at home with her family, eating pancakes and drinking coffee while listening to Norah Jones or Louis Armstrong.
Service Coverage: General Medicine
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Somalee Banerjee (January 2026)
Somalee received her medical degree from Washington University St. Louis and completed her residency at Kaiser Permanente Oakland, where she most recently served as a hospitalist on the faculty. In her spare time, she enjoys painting, cooking, and keeping her plants — and her 5- and 2-year-olds — alive! If she could be anywhere in the world right now, it would be at a café in Paris. On Sunday mornings, you can usually find her searching for a playground with a coffee shop nearby.
Service Coverage: General Medicine
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Fehmida Laxmidhar (January 2026)
Fehmida earned her medical degree from Smt. N.H.L. Municipal Medical College and completed her residency, including a chief year, at Western Reserve Health Ed/Northeast Ohio Medical University. In her spare time, she enjoys settling in with a good movie or a great read. Her favorite food is any type of Asian cuisine. On Sunday mornings, you can usually find her on the court playing badminton or pickleball.
Service Coverage: General Medicine
| | | | | There are still spots available for upcoming Teach for UCSF certificate courses. These are great ways to brush up on your MedEd skills with the CFE. You can register: here. | | 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. | | Join the CBC team or suggest an event here! | | Equity & Belonging in Hospital Medicine | |
If federal law enforcement officials, including ICE officers, visit any UCSF office, here are the recommended steps to take:
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First Steps If You Are Frontline Staff & Faculty
In non-clinical settings
- The first call should be to the UCSF Police (415-476-1414) to let them know that immigration officers are on campus.
In the hospital:
- Contact the House Supervisor, Nursing Supervisor, or Resource Nurse On-Call according to site:
Parnassus
- Voalte Role: Hospital Supervisor Parn
- Voalte Phone: 415-353-8036
- Office Phone: 415-353-1964
Mission Bay
- Voalte Role: Adult MBCRN and RRT
- Voalte Phone: 415-502-0562
- Office Phone: 415-885-3833
Mount Zion
- Voalte Role: Adult MZCRN and RRT
- Voalte Phone: 628-248-9911
- Office Phone: 415-502-9134
Stanyan
- Voalte Role: SMH Nursing Supervisor
- Voalte Phone: 415-297-1798
The supervisor on-call will contact the Administrator-On-Call. If required, you can also contact the AOC directly:
- West Bay AOC Pager: 415-443-9097
- Notify Nerys Benfield when contacting AOC at Parnassus, or Lauren Linett when contacting AOC from Stanyan.
Next Steps:
- Remain calm. Tell the agents that it is University policy to cooperate with legal requests from law enforcement.
- Show the law enforcement official to a conference room, preferably away from any immediate patient care area, and inform them that you must contact your manager or house supervisor and University counsel for assistance and that you will do that right away.
- Politely ask that they wait until your manager and University counsel are present before continuing with their duties.
- Immediately contact your manager and University counsel and inform them that law enforcement agents are on the premises.
- While waiting, ask for and review each official’s badge/identification and write down the information (you may not copy a badge or ID without consent) and also ask for business cards from all persons.
- If you receive pushback, explain to the official that you are not obstructing their process but need to contact your manager and University counsel for assistance.
- Once they have been notified, the manager or house supervisor will contact the AOC. The AOC, in turn, will contact the UCSF Chief of Police, the Vice Chancellor for Communications, and the Office of Legal Affairs.
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More information on these steps here.
If a student is detained:
Email: grace.ucimm@law.ucdavis.edu
Additionally, please make yourself aware of the following resources provided by UC:
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An FAQ about responding to potential situations on UCSF property.
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A "Know Your Rights" card that has been updated for 2025.
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At our December DHM Patient and Family Advisory Council meeting, Akshar Rambachan returned to the PFAC to discuss a new way to partner with the PFAC on his pain research. And Nora Hutchinson and Pauldeep Mann visited to discuss a DHM survey they are working on, with the goal of understanding how patients and families engage with various AI tools regarding their healthcare.
If you'd like to visit the PFAC as a guest or presenter, email Martha to be added to the next available meeting!
- Signed, the PFAC facilitator team, Jeannie, Martha, and Mia
| | Photo of 3 PFAC members, Darryl, Harry, and Michelle | | Logan Pierce is the lead author of a short report published in BMJ Quality & Safety describing the development, accuracy and efficiency of a large language model–based tool for identifying surgical site infections using clinical notes and other electronic health record data. | | | Allison Bond and Andy Auerbach coauthored an editorial recently published in BMJ Quality & Safety about research that explored formalizing physician involvement in patient safety huddles to avoid safety issues. | | Megha Garg, Arturo Gasga, and Jaclyn Vargas were coauthors on a new study recently accepted by The American Journal of Medicine which evaluated the current career choices of a 20-year cohort of former ambulatory chief residents. | | More Publications from DHM | | | |
"Dante Mesa is a superstar at the Stanyan daily multidisciplinary rounds!! He always comes on time, knows his patients well, and optimizes the meeting's efficiency. Also, as we manage limited resources like therapies, Dr. Mesa can reference assessment tools like the AM-PAC score to help determine whether PT/OT is needed, which impressed the therapies team (and all of us) a lot. On top of all that, Dr. Mesa is friendly, kind and very caring towards his patients and his colleagues. He is a pleasure to work with and we are so lucky to have him as part of the UCSF Stanyan team!"
-Julie Maxson
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If you have content you would like to share for an upcoming newsletter, please reach out to Tiffany.Lee@ucsf.edu.
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