UCSF Department Of Medicine | Division of Geriatrics

Dr. Carla Perissinotto is an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine. Carla is dedicated to working in both community and academic settings; she divides her clinical activities between a community health setting at the Over60 Health Center in Berkeley and in working with Housecalls and the new Geriatric Transitions, Consultation, and Comprehensive Care (GeriTraCCC) practice at UCSF.

Carla received her medical school training at Tufts University and completed both her Internal Medicine and Geriatrics training at UCSF. In addition, she holds a Masters in Health Science from Johns Hopkins University, from the Department of Population and Family Health. Carla joined the faculty in August 2010 as a clinician-educator, after being named Geriatrics Fellow of the Year at UCSF. Carla’s interests are in working with diverse communities and improving the training of internal medicine residents and all learners in the care of elderly patients. Carla also has a special interest in teaching primary care doctors how to more effectively recognize cognitive impairment in the outpatient primary care setting. Carla recently received the HRSA Geriatric Academic Career Award 2010-2015, with which she will develop curricula to teach a wide range of learners on the care of elderly patients in diverse settings.

Clinically, Carla spends half of her clinical time at the Over 60 Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center, serving adults over age 55 in Alameda County. She spends the remainder of her time in Housecalls and GeriTraCCC in San Francisco. Carla is passionate about the care of vulnerable elders and truly believes in sharing this excitement with residents, and other learners via lectures, bedside teaching, small group teaching, home visits, and visits to community senior centers.

Carla has also had the privilege to work in clinical settings internationally, most notably, El Salvador, Kenya and Mexico. Most recently, she traveled to Chiapas, Mexico to volunteer in at the Hospital San Carlos which serves the indigenous people of Chiapas. Carla wrote about these experiences on GeriPal, and hopes that this is the beginning of a long relationship, where she can work on improving the care of older patients in low resource settings across the globe. She aspires to develop an opportunity for trainees to volunteer in Chiapas in the future.

Selected Publications

Perissinotto C, Valcour V. "Preventing Dementia: Is there hope for Progress" AAFP 83(9): May 2011
Perissinotto C, Alexander Smith, MD MPH, Eric Widera MD. "GeriPal: Reach and Impact of a Geriatrics and Palliative Care Blog" Poster and workshop presentations at 2010 Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM) and American Geriatrics Society (AGS) National Conference.
Perissinotto C, Stijacic I, Covinsky K. "Loneliness: A Predictor of Functional Decline and Death" presented at Rector Research Symposium and Training In Clinical Research Symposium,UCSF, May 2009 and poster presentation at 2010 American Geriatrics Society (AGS) Annual meeting.
Lerner, D., Adler, D.A., Chang, H., Lapitsky, L., Hood, M.Y., Perissinotto, C., Reed, J., McLaughlin, T.J., Berndt, E.R., and Rogers, W.H. "Unemployment, Job Retention, and Productivity Loss Among Employees With Depression." Psychiatric Services 2004 55: 1371-1378.
Adler DA., Irish J., McLaughlin TJ., Perissinotto C., Chang H., Hood, M., Lapitsky L., Rogers WH., and Lerner D. "The Work Impact of Dysthymia in a Primary Care Population." General Hospital Psychiatry. 26(4):269-76, 2004 Jul-Aug.

Educational Products:

"Geriatric Assessment Pocket Card." The Geriatric Assessment Pocket Card was created by Dr. Wayne Altman and Rossana Lau, and adapted from a chapter written by Drs. Perissinotto and Helen Kao in the "UCSF Outpatient Handbook." 2010
Perissinotto C, Kao H. "Geriatrics" in UCSF Guide to Outpatient Medicine. 2009
Perissinotto C, Pola S, VanMeter M. "Palliative Care" in Hospitalist Handbook. 2008