Monthly Newsletter | September 2026

DHM bids farewell to Andy Auerbach, one of the foundational hospitalists of our division, and wishes him great success on his next adventure as the Division Chief of Hospital Medicine at OHSU. This is not goodbye though, as Andy will remain connected to UCSF as Adjunct Professor and will continue to collaborate with us on research and mentorship.

Meet DHM

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

Ritu Bansal is the new Director of Social Medicine in the division.

Sunny Kishore was interviewed on ABC7 (Bay Area) News on the framework for AI-enabled wearables and its implications for patients/consumers.

The Humanism in Hospital Medicine group co-hosted the quarterly Narrative Medicine Writing Workshop at Aniqa's house on August 27, which included several hospitalists as well as colleagues from Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and medical students. This is one of the projects supported by the Internal Grant from the Department of Hospital Medicine this year; be on the lookout for more humanism-based events this fall!

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.

Faculty Onboarding Happy Hour on September 3

Join the CBC team or suggest an event here!

Equity & Belonging in Hospital Medicine

For this month's Equity & Belonging section, we are sharing a few different opportunities in the realms of social medicine and equity & belonging:

DHM Anti-Discrimination Task Force Meeting (ADTF)

When: Tuesday, September 15, 12pm-1:15pm, in the Parnassus library room 215. Join other DHM faculty and staff for our quarterly ADTF meeting to discuss issues related to equity, belonging, and anti-discrimination. We’ll also be debriefing our recent Hospitalist Day at the Capitol — everyone is welcome! Email Martha to be added to the Zoom invite if joining remote.

Volunteer Opportunity for DHM, Medical Evaluations for Patients Experiencing Homelessness in the East Bay

DHM has a new community-based clinical partnership with the Homeless Action Center (HAC) in the East Bay. Interested DHM hospitalists can volunteer to do medical exams for HAC clients, which can go a long way towards supporting people in need of, and applying for, SSI and SSDI benefits in Alameda County. If interested please reach out to Phuoc Le.

Annual Climate & Belonging Fall Open House

When: Wednesday, September 30, 2026 from 11am-1pm at Millberry Union 102 West . Early access hour: 10am-11am for guests who prefer a low-sensory environment. Registration: Climate & Belonging Registration.

Dialogues on Opportunity

The Office of Opportunity and Outreach is hosting 60-minute sessions for faculty, staff, and learners on building skills in dialogue, reflection and practice. Each session provides practical tools to engage across different, respond to bias, and foster connected environments across UCSF. All sessions, course descriptions, and registration available online. Upcoming sessions include:

• Intercultural Communication - September 17, 2026
• Bias: Recognition and Response - September 23, 2026 
• Microaggressions: Recognition and Response - September 29, 2026
• Religion and the Workplace - October 8, 2026

The DHM PFAC: Updates

We're on summer break for the PFAC, so no new updates for the month. If you'd like to receive real-time patient and family feedback on a project you're working on, reach out to visit our DHM Patient and Family Advisory Council for a consult! We still have openings in the fall and are starting to schedule for the spring — come join us! Email Martha to schedule your visit to the PFAC for their patient and family-centered expertise.

- Signed the PFAC facilitator team, Jeannie, Martha, and Yalda

[Photo from June 2026 PFAC dinner at Lavash]

James Harrison is senior author of a study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society describing the use and prolonged use of gabapentinoids in older adults who are discharged to SNF and then home after surgery.

Himali Weerahandi is a coauthor of a new Journal of General Internal Medicine study examining the experiences of general medicine research fellows, highlighting both the value of fellowship training and important opportunities to create more supportive academic environments through strong mentorship, a peer community, and greater support for trainees entering with varying levels of research experience.

Himali Weerahandi is a coauthor of a new JAMA Internal Medicine Viewpoint on the NIH's Public Access Policy and the important distinction between public access and open access. The piece argues that publisher policies conflating these two models—and forcing NIH-funded authors to pay open-access fees—undermine the policy's intent by converting a mandate for free public access to federally funded research into a new source of publishing revenue.