Eric Widera, MD recently received a competitive grant from the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC) to develop a program to expand palliative care services to the outpatient setting.  This provides a great opportunity to expand this needed service to many Veterans who have been unable to access them before.

This is recognition of the incredible work Dr. Widera has been doing leading the VAMC Palliative Care Service.  The service has grown tremendously under Dr. Widera’s leadership, his work has had great impact improving the quality of life of Veterans who have advanced illness or are at the end of life.

Rebecca Conant, MD received a grant from the Callison Foundation for core support of the Housecalls program. Since taking leadership of Housecalls, Dr. Conant has greatly expanded the number of patients that we are able to serve.  Through Housecalls, Dr. Conant and her colleagues provide exceptional care to the most frail elders in San Francisco, many of whom could not live at home without Housecalls.

The Division of Geriatrics was featured in the Fall 2008 issue of the Frontiers of Medicine Newsletter. This article highlights the work that is being done in the Housecalls Program and Acute Care for Elders Unit. These are two of the programs in the Division of Geriatrics that provide innovative care for seniors. Read Article

Edgar Pierluissi, MD has received an Early Stage Investigator Award from the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation. With the support of the foundation, Dr. Pierluissi will focus his efforts on researching risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease, with the goal of advancing understanding and prevention of the disease. This potentially transformative research could lead to productive collaboration with other investigators in the field and to the design of interventions to prevent or slow Alzheimer’s disease.  

November 25, 2008
The SCAN Foundation announced Thursday that it will fund the design and organization of a new series in JAMA on aging.  The new series seeks to inform and improve practice in the medical care of older people in articles that tell a patient’s story and apply evidence-based answers to key questions that arose for the patient, her family, and her physician.  Seth Landefeld, Helen Chen, and Louise Walter in UCSF’s Division of Geriatrics will lead the effort over the next two years. The new series builds on the pioneering Perspectives on Care at the Close of Life series that was developed for JAMA by UCSF’s Steve McPhee, Steve Pantilat, Mike Rabow, Amy Markowitz, and Phil Tiso.  For more information, see the news release.

The Division of Geriatrics and the School of Medicine lost a dear friend on Sunday, November 2, when Harry Weinstein, MD died at the age of 95.  Professor of Medicine emeritus, Dr. Weinstein practiced for over 50 years at Mt. Zion Hospital , where he also served as Director of Medical Education.  Dr. Weinstein founded the first teaching housecalls program in San Francisco more than 50 years ago.  He was revered by students and residents for his devotion to their education and the patients they shared.  In 1998, Dr. Weinstein was honored with a gift from Maria and Richard Ury to establish the UCSF Housecalls Program a model teaching practice.  Details on a memorial service will be forthcoming.

Stephen Bonasera, Assistant Professor of Medicine, has accepted a position to lead a new program in the neurobiology of aging at the University of Nebraska.  A Brookdale Scholar and an awardee of the National Institute on Aging and the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, Steve has made many wonderful contributions to UCSF and Geriatrics as a doctor, teacher and researcher.  We wish him the best in this exciting next stage of his career and look forward to working with him in the development of Geriatrics nationally. Congratulations!

Shahla Haider, Division Administrator, has accepted a new position as the Director for Administration and Finance for the Department of Urology at Stanford University. Shahla has provided top-notch leadership, management, and counsel to the Division for the past 7 years. We will miss her hard work and thoughtful leadership and wish her the best in this exciting new position. Congratulations!

Seth Landefeld, MD, Chief of the Division of Geriatrics, is on sabbatical at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University .  As a Fellow at the Center, Dr. Landefeld will address wasted health care – care that predictably fails to benefit patients, sometimes harming them, or that achieves a benefit that could be achieved at less cost.  He seeks to advance understanding of this critical problem and its root causes, and to inform policies that will control and reduce wasted care.

The Bay Area research symposium attracts the best research fellows faculty, and junior faculty as well as many senior faculty. The competition for this award was very keen. In this setting, having a second year medical student win is quite amazing, and a testament to Will's great work and Dr. Steinman's exceptional mentorship. Congratulations!