Sei Lee, MD, MAS Assistant Professor of Medicine,
UCSF Division of Geriatrics
Associate Director and Scholar,
VA National Quality Scholars Fellowship Program
Staff Physician, SFVAMC Geriatrics and Extended Care
Overview
Clinical
Research
Scholarship
Sei Lee is a clinician-researcher focused on improving the targeting of interventions in older adults to maximize benefits and minimize harms. Dr. Lee attended medical school at the University of Illinois-Rockford, then moved to UCSF where he completed Primary Care Internal Medicine residency and a Geriatric Medicine fellowship. He also completed the VA Quality Scholars fellowship, receiving advanced training in methodologies related to healthcare quality from the San Francisco VA and obtained a Master’s degree in clinical research from UCSF.
Dr. Lee joined the Division of Geriatrics faculty in 2007 as an Assistant Professor and is currently the Associate Director of the San Francisco VA Quality Scholars fellowship. Dr. Lee’s research examines how a patient’s health status can help individualize treatment decisions, with a special focus on diabetes care for frail nursing home residents. In his clinical work, Dr. Lee supervises and trains residents, fellows and medical students while providing care for internal medicine, palliative care and nursing home patients at the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Lee is an NIH/American Federation of Aging Research Beeson Scholar, which provides funding for research and training. He also receives research support from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation.
Dr. Lee’s clinical work is based at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. He attends on the medicine wards, caring for veterans and teaching students, residents and fellows. He also attends on the Palliative Care service, where he consults on the management of patients with life-limiting diseases and cares for patients who reside in hospice facility located within the San Francisco Veterans Affairs (SFVA) Community Living Center. Dr. Lee also cares for non-hospice patients with long-term care needs residing in the SFVA Community Living Center.
Dr. Lee’s research aims to improve a clinician’s ability to target interventions to patients who are most likely to be helped (and least likely to be harmed). This work holds the promise of maximizing the benefits and minimizing the harms of interventions in the heterogeneous population of older adults.
Older patients suffer from a greater number of chronic illnesses and often receive more medications, procedures and surgeries than younger patients. Much of this care is appropriate, since older patients are at higher risk for disease complications without treatment. However, older patients are also at higher risk for treatment complications such as medication interactions and surgical complications. Because the risks and benefits of specific therapies vary widely across the spectrum of health status in older adults, it is especially important to carefully target interventions to those older patients most likely to benefit.
Dr. Lee’s current research projects focus on (1) individualizing treatment targets for older patients with diabetes, (2) improving the accuracy of life expectancy prediction, (3) determining the time to benefit for preventive interventions in older adults and (4) modifying quality measures to encourage individualized decision making in older adults.
Selected Publications
Lee SJ, Lindquist K, Segal MR, Covinsky KE. Development and validation of a prognostic index for 4-year mortality in older adults. JAMA. 2006 Feb 15;295(7):801-8.
Lee SJ, Moody-Ayers SY, Landefeld CS, Walter LC, Lindquist K, Segal MR, Covinsky KE. The Relationship Between Self-Rated Health and Mortality in Black and White Americans. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2007 Oct;55(10):1624-9.
Lee SJ, Go AS, Lindquist K, Bertenthal DB, Covinsky KE. Chronic Conditions and Mortality in the Oldest Old. Am J Public Health. 2008 Jul; 98(7): 1209-14.
Kernisan LP, Lee SJ, Boscardin WJ, Landefeld CS, Dudley RA. Association between hospital-reported Leapfrog Safe Practices Scores and Inpatient Mortality. JAMA. 2009 Apr;301(13):1341-8.
Lee SJ, Sudore RL, Williams BA, Lindquist K, Chen HL, Covinsky KE. Functional Limitations, Socioeconomic Status and All-Cause Mortality in Moderate Drinkers. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009 Jun;57(6):955-62.
Jennings LA, Auerbach AD, Maselli J, Pekow PS, Lindenauer PK, Lee SJ. Missed Opportunities for Osteoporosis Treatment in Patients Hospitalized for Hip Fracture. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2010 Apr;58(4):650-7.
Lee SJ, Steinman MA, Tan EJ. Volunteering, Driving Status and Mortality in US Retirees. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011 Feb;59(2):274-80.
Lee SJ, Boscardin WJ, Cenzer IS, Huang ES, Rice-Trumble K, Eng C. The Risks and Benefits of Implementing Glycemic Control Guidelines in Frail Elders with Diabetes. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2011 Apr;59(4):666-72.
Lee SJ, Eng C. Goals of Glycemic Control in Frail Older Patients with Diabetes. JAMA. 2011 Apr 6;305(13):1350-1.
Lee SJ, Walter LC. Quality Indicators for Older Adults: Preventing Unintended Harms. JAMA. 2011, in press.
Contact
Office Address:
4150 Clement Street
Bldg. 1, Rm 21A
UCSF Box VA-181G
San Francisco, CA 94121
