UCSF Department Of Medicine | Division of Geriatrics

Dr. Rebecca Sudore is an Assistant Professor In-Residence in the Division of Geriatrics, a Clinician Investigator, and a Hospice and Palliative Care attending.

Dr. Sudore received her medical school training at UCSF and her internal medicine training in the primary care program at UCSF based at San Francisco General Hospital. She then completed both a clinical Geriatrics fellowship and a research fellowship at UCSF. Dr. Sudore joined the faculty at UCSF in October 2005 as a clinician investigator. Dr. Sudore is a recipient of a VA Career Development Award which focuses on her main research interest of improving decision making, especially end-of-life decision making, for elders with limited health literacy.

Clinical Activities

Dr. Rebecca Sudore's clinical activities are primarily based at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. She attends on the Hospice and Palliative Care Service at the VA which performs palliative care consults in the acute hospital and the VA Community Living Center. The palliative care team also provides care to patients in our inpatient hospice unit. Dr. Sudore also attends on the internal medicine inpatient ward service at the San Francisco VA and has her own primary care clinic of geriatric patients. While attending, she has teaching opportunities with fellows, residents, and medical students. She also teaches small group sessions on ethics and geriatrics for the UCSF medical school.

Areas of Specialization/Research Interests:
Geriatrics
Health Communication
Health Literacy
End of life Care
Informed Medical Decision Making
Health Disparities

Dr. Sudore's research focuses on the intersection of limited health literacy, geriatrics, end-of-life care, and medical decision making. She published the first prospective study demonstrating the effect of limited literacy on mortality in the elderly, and has shown that elders with limited literacy have greater difficulty making medical decisions for informed consent and advance care planning. She has designed and tested interventions to improve patient decision making by creating an informed consent process for patients with limited literacy and an advance directive that is both literacy and culturally appropriate. Both interventions have been shown to benefit patients - particularly those with literacy and/or language barriers. Her NIA K23 and subsequent VA Career Development Award is focused on creating culturally and literacy appropriate tools to help patients define the value they place on the burden and outcomes of treatment with the goal of better enabling patients to engage in the advance care planning process.

Through her research, Dr. Sudore strives to improve decision making, especially end-of-life decision making, for elders with limited health literacy. She is also interested in the intersection of literacy and language on health outcomes, patient-clinician communication, and patient decision making.

Selected Publications

Sudore RL, Mehta KM, Harris TB, Newman AB, Simonsick EM, Satterfield S, Rosano C, Rooks R, Rubin SM, Ayonayon HN, K Yaffe. Limited literacy in older people and disparities in health and healthcare access. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2006 May; 54(5): 770-6.
Sudore RL, Yaffe K, Satterfield S, Harris TB, Mehta KM, Simonsick EM, Newman AB, Rosano C, Rooks R, Rubin SM, Ayonayon HN, Schillinger D. Limited literacy and mortality in the elderly: the health, aging, and body composition study. J Gen Intern Med. 2006 Aug; 21(8): 806-12.
Sudore RL, Landefeld CS, Williams BA, Barnes DE, Lindquist MS, Schillinger D. Use of a modified informed consent process among vulnerable patients: a descriptive study. J Gen Intern Med. 2006 Aug; 21(8): 867-73.
Sudore RL, Landefeld CS, Barnes DE, Lindquist K, Williams BA, Brody R, Schillinger D. An advanced directive redesigned to meet the literacy level of most adults: A randomized trial. Patient Educ Couns. 2007 Dec;69(1-3):165-195.
Sudore RL, Schickedanz AD, Landefeld CS, Williams BA, Lindquist K, Pantilat Z, Schillinger D. Engagement in the Multiple Steps of Advance Care Planning: A Descriptive Study Among Diverse Older Adults. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2008 Jun;56(6):1006-13.
Sudore RL, Landefeld CS, Pantilat SZ, Noyes KM, Schillinger D. Reach and Impact of a Mass Media Event Among Vulnerable Patients: The Terri Schiavo Story. J Gen Intern Med. 2008 Nov; 23(11): 1854-7.
Schickedanz AD, Schillinger D, Landefeld CS, Knight SL, Williams BA, Sudore RL. A Clinical Framework for Improving the Advance Care Planning Process: Start with Patients' Self-identified Barriers. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2009 Jan; 57(1): 31-9.
Sudore RL, Schillinger D. Interventions to Improve Care for Patients with Limited Health Literacy. In press at JCOM, 2009.
Smith A, Sudore RL, Perez-Stable EJ. Palliative Care for Latino Patients and Their Families: "Whenever We Prayed, She Wept" Perspectives on Care at the Close of Life series in JAMA. In press at JAMA, 2009.
Sudore RL, Landefeld CS, Perez-Stable EJ, Schillinger D. Unraveling the Relationship Between Literacy, Language & Doctor-Patient Communication. In press at PEC, 2009.