A Monthly Digest of Noteworthy Activities and Achievements

As we approach a new year, we reflect on the DOM’s continued commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB). Read about the initiatives and activities undertaken by faculty, trainees, and staff that have promoted DEIB and learn how you can join these efforts.

Honors and News

Alicia Fernández was recognized as a Latinx Changemaker by UCOP.

Laurae Pearson received the Chancellor Award for Advancement of Women.

Mark Pletcher was named chair of the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics.

Neil Powe received the Herbert W. Nickens Award from the AAMC.

Greg Rebchook received the Chancellor Award for LGBTQ+ Leadership.

Other Honors and News

Julia Adler-Milstein received an AMIA Leadership Award for outstanding volunteer service on ethics and creating the Policy North Stars.

Brieze Bell received the Outstanding Resident Teaching Award from the 2022-23 OBGYN residents.

Maria Dall’Era received the Evelyn V. Hess Award from the Lupus Foundation of America.

John Messinger received the Johns Hopkins Jeremy Sugarman Research Award for his abstract entitled “Outcomes for Patients Discharged to Involuntary Commitment for Substance Use Disorder Directly from the Hospital.”

Bob Wachter was elected to the board of directors of the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation.

SPIRIT of DOM Awardees

Barbara Green-Ajufo (Division of Prevention Science), Rebecca Hoh (Division of HIV, Infectious Diseases, and Global Medicine, ZSFG) and Michael Mann (Research Administration, SFVAHCS) are the recipients of the SPIRIT of DOM Award, which recognizes exceptional DOM staff members. Read more about them.

DOM in the News

Ryan Assaf wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times challenging the drug abuse-homelessness link.

John Balmes recommended the best types of masks for both wildfire smoke and Covid in an interview with KQED.

Peter Chin-Hong discussed summer/fall surge trends and possible causes of Covid fatigue in the NY Times. He also told Vox that people with Covid should consider taking Paxlovid even if they are low risk.

Anna Chodos argued against politician age limits in a STAT News op-ed.

Steven Deeks suggested strategies to prevent HIV reservoir reactivation in ScienceNews.

Monica Gandhi was quoted in the Washington Post discussing Covid booster strategies. She also appeared on ABC News commenting on the cost of Covid vaccines and on NBC Bay Area explaining the differences between active and latent TB.

Leila Haghighat and Zian Tseng were featured in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, and US News & World Report highlighting their finding that homeless individuals live shorter lives than matched controls with stable housing.

Michael Harper spoke to CNN advocating for geriatric training for all healthcare professionals.

Chi-yuan Hsu was featured in STAT News expressing optimism that many patients with acute kidney injury can be weaned off dialysis.

Priscilla Hsue, speaking to the Mercury News, shared a hopeful perspective about the potential of gene editing to cure HIV.

Suneil Koliwad was interviewed on the As Prescribed podcast addressing insulin affordability.

Margot Kushel discussed health challenges faced by older homeless individuals on the As Prescribed podcast. She also addressed the heightened visibility and risks of homelessness on ABC News and on KQED.

Annie Luetkemeyer was quoted on CNN and Live Science supporting the use of antibiotics for STI prevention.

On the PBS News Hour, Tiana Moore described the challenges of delivering booster shots to the unhoused population.

Nahid Payam acknowledged the influence of stigma on TB testing avoidance in the East Bay Times.

Michael Peluso commented on monoclonal antibodies to treat long Covid and noted different immune responses in long Covid patients in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Johanna Avelar Portillo wrote an op-ed in the Messenger asserting that clean water access is a human right denied to individuals experiencing homelessness.

Rita Redberg was quoted in Fortune opining that many cancer screening tests don’t reduce cancer mortality.

Lindsay Ryan wrote an op-ed in the Atlantic reflecting on her mother’s pancreatic cancer journey.

Dolores Shoback raised concern in the Washington Post over inadequate osteoporosis screening among many women.

Diana Thiara was quoted by NBC Bay Area saying that the shortage of weight loss drugs will lead to privileged access.

Bob Wachter shared insights with the New York Times on the factors that may drive doctors to consider unionization.

In a feature on CNN, Ethan Weiss commented on a study showing that time-restricted eating can help control blood sugar for people with type 2 diabetes.

Eric Widera voiced concerns about using the AD-Detect home blood test on CNN and the Mercury News.

Tracey Woodruff described the health effects of formaldehyde exposure to the New York Times.

Alma Yates wrote an op-ed in Common Dreams sharing her experience as a refugee from Bosnia.

Revised UCSF Health Funds Flow

On October 1, a revised UCSF Health Funds Flow went into effect. Its goal is to better support our faculty and trainees across all our missions and help UCSF Health succeed in an increasingly challenging marketplace. Read Bob Wachter’s message or watch a town hall led by Bob and Michelle Mourad.

New Faculty Orientation

This fall we welcomed 91 new faculty members to the Department of Medicine: 75 at UCSF Health, 13 at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFG), and three at the San Francisco VA (SFVAHCS). These faculty attended one of three in-person sessions to learn about who we are, our mission and vision, and how to be successful in the DOM. Read a summary of their day.

Recent Grants of Note

Julia Adler-Milstein and team: a grant of $15M over 5 years from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to create a national Coordinating Center for Diagnostic Excellence (CoDEx).

Trever Bivona and team: a grant of $3.4M over 5 years from the National Cancer Institue for a project entitled, “Dissecting the role and mechanism of EML4-ALK condensates in oncogenic signaling and tumor growth.”

Maya Vijayaraghavan and team: a grant of $3.4M over 5 years from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities for a project entitled, “A smoke-free home intervention in federally subsidized housing.”

Stephanie Christenson, Neeta Thakur, and team: a grant of $2.5M over 5 years from the National Institutes of Health for the creation of one of ten “multi-omics research centers” across the US to study disease in communities historically underrepresented in research.

Recent Publications of Note

Beagle AJ, Sunwoo BY, Olin RL, Schwartz BS, Block BL. It's all in the timing. N Engl J Med. 2023 Sep 7;389(10):940-947. doi: 10.1056/NEJMcps2307176. >> PubMed Citation

Blaeschke F, Chen YY, Apathy R, Daniel B, Chen AY, Chen PA, Sandor K, Zhang W, Li Z, Mowery CT, Yamamoto TN, Nyberg WA, To A, Yu R, Bueno R, Kim MC, Schmidt R, Goodman DB, Feuchtinger T, Eyquem J, Jimmie Ye C, Carnevale J, Satpathy AT, Shifrut E, Roth TL, Marson A. Modular pooled discovery of synthetic knockin sequences to program durable cell therapies. Cell. 2023 Sep 14;186(19):4216-4234.e33. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.08.013.
>> PubMed Citation

Deardorff WJ, Lu K, Jing B, Jeon SY, Boscardin WJ, Fung KZ, Lee SJ. Frequency of Screening for colorectal cancer by predicted life expectancy among adults 76-85 years. JAMA. 2023 Oct 3;330(13):1280-1282. doi: 10.1001/jama.2023.15820. >> PubMed Citation

Del Rivero J, Perez K, Kennedy EB, Mittra ES, Vijayvergia N, Arshad J, Basu S, Chauhan A, Dasari AN, Bellizzi AM, Gangi A, Grady E, Howe JR, Ivanidze J, Lewis M, Mailman J, Raj N, Soares HP, Soulen MC, White SB, Chan JA, Kunz PL, Singh S, Halfdanarson TR, Strosberg JR, Bergsland EK. Systemic therapy for tumor control in metastatic well-differentiated gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: ASCO guideline. J Clin Oncol. 2023 Sep 29:JCO2301529. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1200/JCO.23.01529.
>> PubMed Citation

Fahy JV, Locksley RM. Immune treatment tackles chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Nature. 2023 Sep;621(7979):476-477. doi: 10.1038/d41586-023-02517-5.
>> PubMed Citation

Gandhi M, Goosby E. PEPFAR reauthorization by congress urgent for global health. JAMA. 2023 Sep 14. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1001/ jama.2023.19322. >> PubMed Citation

Lu A, Ji RZ, Ge AY, Ross JS, Ramachandran R, Redberg RF, Dhruva SS. Financial conflicts of interest in public comments on medicare national coverage determinations of medical devices. JAMA. 2023 Sep 19;330(11):1094-1096. doi: 10.1001/jama.2023.14414. >> PubMed Citation

Massagué J, Sheppard D. TGF-β signaling in health and disease. Cell. 2023 Sep 14;186(19):4007-4037. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.07.036. >> PubMed Citation

Norman JS, Li PJ, Kotwani P, Shui AM, Yao F, Mehta N. AFP-L3 and DCP strongly predict early hepatocellular carcinoma recurrence after liver transplantation. J Hepatol. 2023 Sep 7:S0168-8278(23)05074-2. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1016/j.jhep.2023.08.020. >> PubMed Citation

Reid M, Agbassi YJP, Arinaminpathy N, Bercasio A, Bhargava A, Bhargava M, Bloom A, Cattamanchi A, Chaisson R, Chin D, Churchyard G, Cox H, Denkinger CM, Ditiu L, Dowdy D, Dybul M, Fauci A, Fedaku E, Gidado M, Harrington M, Hauser J, Heitkamp P, Herbert N, Herna Sari A, Hopewell P, Kendall E, Khan A, Kim A, Koek I, Kondratyuk S, Krishnan N, Ku CC, Lessem E, McConnell EV, Nahid P, Oliver M, Pai M, Raviglione M, Ryckman T, Schäferhoff M, Silva S, Small P, Stallworthy G, Temesgen Z, van Weezenbeek K, Vassall A, Velésquez GE, Venkatesan N, Yamey G, Zimmerman A, Jamison D, Swaminathan S, Goosby E. Scientific advances and the end of tuberculosis: a report from the Lancet Commission on Tuberculosis. Lancet. 2023 Sep 13:S0140-6736(23)01379-X. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(23)01379-X. >> PubMed Citation

Sharma S, Le Guillou D, Chen JY. Cellular stress in the pathogenesis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis and liver fibrosis. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol. 2023 Oct;20(10):662-678. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1038/s41575-023-00832-w. >> PubMed Citation

See all 201 DOM-authored publications from last month.

Featured Events

Open Enrollment
October 26 - November 17
Learn about benefit changes, costs, and how to enroll.
Enroll on or before November 17

SPIRIT of DOM Awards — Virtual Ceremony
Tuesday, November 21, 12:10-12:30 pm
Join us in celebrating the SPIRIT of DOM Award winners.
Attend on Zoom

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