UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program

Post-doctoral medical training has been part of the St. Mary's tradition since 1904. For 167 years we have provided compassionate care to the diverse San Francisco Bay Area community, including the urban underserved. Building on a long-standing academic affiliation, St. Mary's and St. Francis hospitals proudly joined the UCSF Health Network in August 2024 as the San Francisco community hospital camp uses of one of the top academic institutions in the country. Our commitment to providing access to comprehensive health care for all, including underserved and underinsured communities, remains an essential component of our mission.

Our residents and teaching faculty are a diverse group who reflect the multicultural and multi-ethnic patient population of the Bay Area. Our Internal Medicine residency is a highly collegial program that strives to combine the best educational aspects of community hospital and major academic medical center settings. Maintaining a collaborative and supportive teaching environment that fosters learning and equips our residents with the skills necessary to become expert internists remains our primary goal.

Program Highlights

  • Full ACGME accreditation with no citations
  • Outstanding fellowship placement and ABIM Board Pass Rate
  • A multi-ethnic socio-economically diverse patient population
  • A community-based program embedded in the academic teaching environment of the University of California San Francisco, a major academic medical center
  • An X+Y block schedule which provides protected learning time and clinical immersion into ambulatory medicine throughout each residency year
  • A flexible curriculum and diverse training sites in community, university and county hospital settings
  • Personalized training to facilitate optimal career planning and competitive post-residency placement in fellowship, primary care, or hospitalist careers
  • Faculty and peer mentorship programs with designated faculty and senior residents assigned to each resident for personal and professional support
  • Strong academic support for scholarly activity including participation in hospital-wide quality improvement projects and opportunities to present research and case reports at regional and national meetings.
  • Protected time for arigorous Quality improvement curriculum with workshops to plan and implement resident-led quality improvement team projects
  • Academic half day during clinic weeks (Simulation lab for Code Blue and RRT, POCUS, Foundations of Critical Care skills labs)
  • POCUS curriculum with Butterfly POCUS probes available 24/7 and opportunity to complete the UCSF POCUS certification program
  • Inpatient ward services staffed 24/7 by dedicated in-house UCSF-hospitalist faculty
  • Closed intensive care units staffed by dedicated academic critical care faculty
  • Outstanding sub-specialty and general internal medicine faculty teach and supervise residents one-on-one during inpatient and outpatient elective rotations
  • Curriculum in Caring for Vulnerable and Marginalized Populations, including a unique Medical Safe Haven program that provides primary care for survivors / victims of Human Trafficking
  • Opportunities to participate in hospital committees and acquire the skills for future leadership roles
  • UCSF library privileges and online access
  • Faculty run board preparation course and MKSAP review for ABIM internal medicine board examination
  • MKSAP individual subscription provided by program for all categorical interns and residents
  • Social activities and services to promote well being
  • A resident-run wellbeing committee
  • A global health curriculum and international rotation

Letter from the Program Director

Terrie Mendelson, MD, FACP

  • Director of Graduate Medical Education, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • ACGME Designated Institutional Official
  • Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency
  • Associate Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, California Northstate University School of Medicine
  • Medical School: UCSF
  • Residency: UCSF
  • Fellowship: General Internal Medicine and Medical Education, UCSF
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Welcome to the Internal Medicine Residency Program at UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital. We are a small, highly collegial program that strives to combine the best educational aspects of both our community hospital and major academic medical center settings. A Program Director has only one product: her residents. Regardless of your future career plans within Internal Medicine, my faculty and I will devote 100% of our energy and attention to assuring the best possible training experience for you over the next 1-3 years, customized to meet the educational needs of each individual resident in a way that is impossible to achieve in most large residency programs. Residency programs look remarkably similar on paper: what differentiates us is not our curricula or fellowship placement rates as much as our residents, faculty and –most importantly– our patients. My own background is entirely academic: I trained at UCSF and served as a Program Director there for many years before making the 8-block move to our UCSF Health network's academic community hospital. St. Mary's truly embodies the best of both worlds.

Let me tell you what I find to be so special about St. Mary's:

Our Hospital

Located in the heart of beautiful San Francisco (literally across the street from Golden Gate Park), UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital has a 167-year history of educating physicians and providing care for the incredibly diverse San Francisco population, with a special focus on the underserved. As our hospital's motto states, "We started health care in San Francisco” and we continue to lead the way in health reform today: we are a training program whose residents and faculty all participate actively in Healthy San Francisco, SF's universal healthcare program for the medically underserved. We've been recognized nationally as a Health Grades Top 250 Hospital as well as a center of excellence in cardiac care, primary stroke, joint replacement, diabetes, bariatric surgery, and gender-affirming care. It is difficult to imagine a more diverse patient population: we care for patients across the entire socioeconomic spectrum and from around the world - and it is true that the more you see, the more you learn.

Academics

I describe our residency as an academic program in an urban community setting. Our residents are strongly encouraged – and mentored – to engage in scholarly activities including research, quality improvement projects, abstract and poster presentations and authorship of systematic reviews and primary research manuscripts. More than half of our residents present posters at the American College of Physicians meeting each year and senior residents can travel to the national Society for Hospitalist Medicine, SGIM or subspecialty society meetings to present their quality improvement or research work.

St. Mary's residents rotate to UCSF and Zuckerberg SFGH (the City and County public hospital within the UCSF system) for Emergency Medicine, Neurology, Hematology-Oncology, and a variety of subspecialty elective rotations, where they work alongside UCSF residents and fellows. California NorthState School of Medicine MS3 and 4 students rotate at St. Mary's for inpatient rotations, and several UCSF fellowships and residencies have core rotations at St. Mary's. UCSF hospitalist faculty run the St. Mary's inpatient teaching service and participate actively in noon conferences, core seminars, POCUS and procedures training, medical grand rounds and resident mentorship at St. Mary's.

Through our academic partnerships with UCSF and other medical schools, our residents teach and supervise third and fourth-year medical students doing medicine clerkships on the wards and ICU. Stanford, UCSF and CPMC residents and fellows train at St. Mary's for dedicated rotations in adolescent psychiatry, acute rehabilitation medicine, radiation oncology, interventional vascular, ophthalmology, plastic and microvascular surgery, and cardiac electrophysiology.

St. Mary's also sponsors residency programs in Orthopedic Surgery and Podiatric Surgery and Rearfoot/Ankle Reconstruction. Interns from both programs rotate on our inpatient wards teaching service, fostering excellent cross-program collaboration among our residents.

Our Faculty

At an academic community hospital, physicians join the residency faculty and teach because they want to, not because they must. Our faculty are highly enthusiastic clinician-educators whose top priority is your education. Residents at St. Mary's enjoy an unusually close working relationship with both core and subspecialty faculty, working 1:1 with subspecialists on consultation services. Our subspecialty faculty, Chair of Medicine, and Chief of Staff know every one of our residents by name and play a very active role in teaching and mentoring residents for their future careers. Core St. Mary's inpatient faculty are UCSF School of Medicine clinician-educators and several faculty also hold academic appointments at Stanford.

Our Residents

Our Preliminary interns come from excellent medical schools and go on to top national programs in Radiology, Radiation Oncology, Anesthesia, Neurology, Dermatology, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. A growing number of former "Prelims” are choosing to return to St. Mary's for practice after completing their advanced residencies. Our categorical residents are recruited from academically excellent medical schools throughout the world. Although the majority are US medical graduates, we are strongly committed to training residents who represent the same cultural diversity that we value in our patients, so we also recruit outstanding residents from the best international medical schools. The resultant diversity in background and professional interests fosters a stimulating, collaborative working environment that often results in life-long friendships. Our graduates consistently provide positive feedback about their training at St. Mary's and do extremely well in fellowship matches and enjoy outstanding career placement in hospitalist and primary care medicine careers. Most of our graduates stay in contact with us for many years, and many choose to establish their medical practices at St. Mary's, either as UCSF Hospitalist faculty or by joining a primary care or subspecialty group affiliated with our institution. As a group, our residents are remarkably happy, engaged, intelligent and well-balanced people who love living and learning in San Francisco.

Our hospital and department of medicine leadership, program directors, and faculty are extremely supportive of our residency programs, enabling residents to have a great deal of "ownership" of their program and hospital through the Resident Advisory Council, GME Committee, and other major hospital committees on which residents at all levels can sit. Residents have a powerful voice in this hospital: our residents are the core of our mission to provide state-of-the-art, compassionate care for our diverse and underserved community.

Letter from the Chief Residents

Welcome to UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital, where research and medical training have been part of the hospital's tradition since 1904. As you surf through our program's website to find the answer to your question "Why should I want to do my Internal Medicine residency at UCSF St. Mary's?", let us help you find the answer!

What makes our program stand out?

Education, Education, Education

Our program's philosophy is "education above service”. Our faculty values and promotes education in every setting whether it's practice-based learning, didactic sessions or scholarly work. We maintain the high educational standards of the UCSF system. Most of our core faculty serve as teaching faculty at both the UCSF medical school campus and UCSF St. Mary's. In addition to faculty-led bedside teaching rounds, we have Resident's Report four times a week, daily noon curriculum conferences given by dedicated faculty, and weekly UCSF grand rounds with invited speakers from UCSF and top national institutions. The core and subspecialty faculty (including many of our Division Chiefs) conduct weekly evening Board Review sessions weekly using both ACP course review modules and MKSAP to prepare us for the ABIM Board exam. Our program directors are very accessible and personally involved in our teaching every day.

Diverse Pathology

Our hospital is located in the heart of San Francisco, literally across the street from the world-famous Golden Gate Park. We care for patients from a wide range of ethnic and cultural backgrounds and see amazing pathology. About half of our patients come from middle-class communities of the neighboring Richmond, Fillmore, Castro and Sunset districts, each with a distinctive population. Another half are poor and/or underserved people coming from Haight-Ashbury, Golden Gate Park, the Tenderloin and Chinatown districts. Factor in tourists from all over the world who had the bad luck to get sick on vacation, and you will see we have a little bit of everything! We have a combined medical-surgical and cardiac ICU that provides us with the opportunity to learn medical management of post-operative spine, cardiac, orthopedic, bariatric and urologic surgery patients, as well as the more traditional multi-organ system failure and mechanical ventilation patients. Our UCSF POCUS curriculum director and board-certified critical care faculty teach state of the art bedside ultrasound so that by the end of the internship we become well skilled in all procedures needed to optimally manage our patients in the critical setting. Each ward and clinic team has a Butterfly POCUS probe, and all residents have a Butterfly account to store images for review. Our residents rotate through UCSF-Zuckerberg SF General Hospital, where they work in a Level 1 trauma center to see even more diverse pathophysiology and patient populations in a County Hospital setting.

Humane Training Schedule

Our program is compliant with all current ACGME requirements regarding admission and census caps, duty hours monitoring and sleep deprivation teaching. Several of our residents have families and children; some have children during residency. Many residents are active skiers, snowboarders, cyclists or runners (and even mountain climbers). It is all doable! Our program has a q 4 day admitting schedule on wards with no overnight call: a Swing resident and dedicated Night Medicine team provide cross-coverage and admit patients after 5 pm. All residents have one day off per week on wards and ICU and weekends off during electives and clinic weeks. There is a Jeopardy system in place to provide coverage for colleagues who become ill or experience other emergencies, and an Intern Float rotation provides day-off coverage for interns on all inpatient rotations. 4 weeks of vacation are allowed each year.

Camaraderie

According to our residents, this is the best part of the program! As you will see when you interview and have the opportunity to meet our residents virtually, camaraderie is great among our residents and interns. We are very supportive of one another, and there's a great spirit of teamwork. We often get together for social activities such as wine-tasting, OctoberFest, barbeques in the park, sports events, dinners at favorite restaurants, informal outings with the faculty, and our annual residents' retreat and Interns' Day.

Fellowships and Research

St. Mary's residents may complete program director-approved research projects at UCSF St. Mary's, other UCSF campuses, or other affiliated institutions.

Our Program has a strong record of matching residents to highly competitive fellowships at top institutions, including UCSF (Nephrology, Heme-Onc, Geriatrics, GI, Endocrinology); Stanford (Geriatrics, Palliative Care); Columbia (GI); UCLA (ID, Geriatrics); UC Davis (Heme-Onc); UC San Diego (Nephrology); University of Texas Southwestern/Dallas (Nephrology); Oregon Health Science University (Nephrology, Endocrinology, ID); Fox Chase Cancer Center (Heme-Onc); Loma Linda University (Heme-Onc); UCI (Heme-Onc); CPMC (GI); UCSF Fresno (Cardiology, Pulm–Critical Care); Harvard (Clinical Informatics); Georgetown (Heme-Onc); Tulane (Cardiology, Pulm-Critical Care); Ohio State (Cardiology, Rheumatology); Baylor (Heme-Onc); NYU (ID); USC (Pulm-Critical Care); Scripps (Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology); Cedars-Sinai (Rheumatology) and Tufts (Endocrinology).

Dedicated one-on-one mentorship helps our residents develop strategic plans for fellowship application and career development. Our Program Directors and subspecialty faculty support and encourage fellowships and provide personal mentorship to every resident who should choose that path. Our faculty will help strengthen and promote your fellowship application by providing strong letters of support, place phone calls on your behalf, assist in organizing outside rotations/research projects, and even conduct fellowship mock interviews to build confidence and prepare you for the real thing!

Location, Location, Location

Living in San Francisco is amazing! You will find an overload of cultural activity (museums, opera, ballet, theater, and concerts, such as the fantastic annual Hardly, Strictly Blue Grass Festival and the Outside Lands Festival in Golden Gate Park), amazing restaurants and bars, and plenty of outdoor activities year-round. UCSF St Mary's Hospital borders Golden Gate Park, which makes it tempting to get in an early morning run before you start your day or after a long day. We are only minutes from the Pacific Ocean (check out the view of the Golden Gate Bridge from our eighth floor!), a short drive from downtown San Francisco, half an hour from the magnificent Muir Woods and Marin Headlands, an hour's drive from the wine country, and 3 hours from Lake Tahoe's ski slopes.

Bottom Line

Our residency program will train you with academic rigor in a supportive environment and will prepare you well for your career, whether you choose primary care, Hospitalist practice, or subspecialty fellowship training. Check it out for yourself, we're happy we did!

A Day in the Life of an Intern

by former Chief Resident Rodrigo Cordero-Pangrazio, MD

5:50 AM Monday. About to start a 2-week stretch of wards on the Green team. Armed with last night's sign out, I stretch my legs over my bed and start my morning routine. Shower, brush my teeth, throw on my clothes, gather my belongings, and head out to my car. The air outside is crisp, but the sky is clear- perfect San Francisco weather. I hop into my car and flip on the radio. The Warriors are in the midst of a tense playoff run, and the radio is detailing the upcoming game tonight. Before that radio segment is even over, I arrive at the hospital, stethoscope draped around my neck. I say hello to the familiar faces in the hallway as I pass into the elevator, checking my watch to see the arms acutely angled, reading 6:28 AM.

The elevator doors open to the fourth floor, and instantly I hear the chorus of excited voices down the hall starting morning sign-out. The scrubs-clad night team performs the ceremonial hand-off of service phones, recites the cross-cover events overnight, and digs in deep to present the new admissions before they hustle home for some much-deserved sleep. Each case is a mystery, some appearing more complex than others, but each promising to add to our collective medical knowledge. Chief Resident and our program director, Dr. Mendelson, ever-present at nearly all morning sign-outs, finds the high-yield points in even the most abstract cases, and interesting and novel points in even the most seemingly familiar of cases.

Once the night team has gone home, I huddle with my team, my resident the quarterback calling out the plays for the day. I start my pre-rounding, reviewing carefully the details of the night: vitals, labs, I&Os, imaging, culture data, anything and everything available to me to start piecing together the mosaic that is each patient. Then is the most rewarding part of the day- getting to meet all my patients. There are 3 new faces for me today, each with a unique life, full of ups and downs, turns and twists, the sum of which has landed her or him in the hospital. By 8:30 AM, I have met all of them, have asked them my most burning questions, and have answered some of theirs. It is time for rounds.

My resident starts us off with our first patient, which happens to be a patient of mine. Whereas only 10 months prior I would have shrunk at the idea of presenting a patient, mumbling my way through in a nervous sweat, I now stand calm and share the pertinent information for each patient with aplomb. My resident listens intently and offers sage advice to my daily plan. Only then does the attending offer the team evidence-based data to further refine our plan. We go and evaluate the patient as a team, reviewing any important physical findings, and in a total of 5 minutes, we are confident with our plan.

We wrap up rounds at 11:00 AM and start the intricate process of planning our discharges for the day- making sure orders are in, the medications are correct and clear to the patient, and making sure they have follow-up appointments. Some may be on their way home, some to a skilled nursing facility before ultimately going home, and some to a facility for the long-haul. And just like that, it's lunchtime!

Noon conference today is a discussion on different types of cardiomyopathies. One of our many amazing cardiologists is giving the talk, and all the house staff are seated around the table, Thai food piled high on their plates. The talk is fun and informative, and we finish with a few MKSAP questions. Two plates of Pad Thai later, I have the energy for the afternoon. And soon enough, we get the call… the ED has an admission for us. And wouldn't you know, I am up. I do some quick chart digging on the patient, and together with my resident, we head down to the ED. The case is interesting, a young gentleman with HIV presenting with confusion and a worsening headache. His RPR titer is through the roof. After we staff with our attending, the plan is laid out to tap him. We gather all the equipment for the LP, and with the help of my resident and attending, I perform the procedure. We send out all the necessary labs, eager for the results.

After this, the afternoon is, dare I say it…quiet. My co-intern and I write our notes, prep our electronic handoffs, and in a blink of an eye, the Swing team comes strolling in, once again donning their navy-blue scrubs. We fill them in on the happenings of the day with verbal sign-out, share the most salient pieces of high-yield medicine we learned that day, and prepare for our Green team activity for the evening.

Shirts sleeves now rolled up, we walk into the April sun towards Kezar Pub. There we sit hovering over a plate of chicken wings as the Warriors game begins. One of the best parts about St. Mary's is that the teamwork doesn't end once you walk out of the hospital doors. The camaraderie extends to our lives outside of the hospital, which makes our work in the hospital more fun and efficient. The Warriors win, the restaurant empties, and we say our goodbyes, pumped to do it all over again tomorrow.

Core Faculty & Key Teaching Faculty

Core Faculty

Ingrid Block-Kurbisch, MD, FACP

  • Associate Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency
  • Education Director, Endocrinology
  • Medical Director of Ambulatory Care, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: University of Vienna, Austria
  • Residency: California Pacific Medical Center, SF
  • Fellowship: Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, UCSF
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine, Endocrinology
Peter Barish 
  • Core Faculty
  • Hospital Medicine, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Student Clerkship Director, Internal Medicine
  • Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: Weill Cornell Medical College, New York
  • Residency: University of Washington
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Francis J. Charlton, Jr., MD

  • Core Faculty
  • Primary Care Internal Medicine, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Education Director, Geriatrics
  • Medical School: Georgetown University
  • Residency: St. Mary's Medical Center, San Francisco
  • Board Certified ABIM: Internal Medicine

Abraham (Avromi) Kanal, MD

  • Core Faculty
  • Hospital Medicine, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Education Director, POCUS training
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  • Residency: Yale Internal Medicine and Primary Care
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Kimberley Marquis, MD

  • Core Faculty
  • Director, Critical Care and Pulmonology, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Education Director, Critical Care
  • Medical School: Duke University
  • Residency: University of Washington, Seattle
  • Fellowship: Pulmonary-Critical Care Medicine, University of Washington
  • Board Certified ABIM: Internal Medicine and Critical Care and Pulmonary Disease

Robert Schoene, MD

  • Core Faculty
  • Associate Director, Intensive Care Unit
  • Education Director, Pulmonology
  • Chair, Department of Medicine, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons
  • Residency: University of Washington, Seattle
  • Fellowship: Respiratory Disease, University of Washington
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine & Critical Care and Pulmonary Disease

Atul "Ryan" Sharma, MD, MPH

  • Core Faculty
  • Hospital Medicine
  • Assistant Program Director, Internal Medicine Residency, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: University of Sydney Medical School in Sydney Australia
  • Internship: Mercy Catholic Medical Center, Darby, PA, Internal Medicine
  • Residency: Scripps Clinic/Scripps Green Hospital, San Diego.
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Key Teaching Faculty

Warren Chang, MD

  • Chief, Nephrology, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Education Director, Nephrology
  • Medical School: UC Davis
  • Residency: UC Davis
  • Fellowship: Nephrology, UC Davis
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine and Nephrology

Peter Chansky, MD

  • Education Director, Dermatology, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Medical School: University of Pennsylvania
  • Dermatology Research Fellowship: University of Pennsylvania
  • Preliminary Internship: St. Mary's Medical Center
  • Residency: Dermatology: New York University
  • Board Certified, American Board of Dermatology

Shubra Gupta, MD

  • Hospital Medicine
  • Quality Improvement & Patient Safety Director, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: Armed Forces Medical College
  • Residency: Internal Medicine, John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County, Chicago
  • UCSF Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Diana Hilbert, MD, FACP

  • Primary Care Internal Medicine, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Education Director, Primary Care Rotation/Women's Health
  • Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: Dartmouth University
  • Residency: UCLA
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Gary Huang, MD

  • Education Director, Cardiology, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Medical School: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
  • Residency: Boston University
  • Fellowship: Cardiovascular Disease, Stony Brook University Hospital, and Advanced Cardiovascular Imaging, Houston Methodist Hospital
  • Board Certified: ABIM and Cardiovascular Disease

Qi Quan (Ben) Leong, MD

  • Education Director, Infectious Disease and HIV, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Medical School: Jefferson Medical College
  • Residency: WellSpan York Hospital
  • Fellowship: Adult Infectious Diseases, New York Medical College
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease

Lauren Linett, MD

  • Director of Hospital Medicine, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: University of Ottowa, Ontario
  • Residency: University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario
  • Master of Health Care Management, Harvard University Board Certified, ABFM and Focused Practice of Hospital Medicine

Xinran (Leo) Liu, MD, MS

  • Hospital Medicine, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Associate Program Director, UCSF Clinical Informatics Fellowship
  • Medical School: Dartmouth Medical School
  • Residency: University of Washington, Seattle
  • Fellowship: University of Washington, Seattle, Medical Informatics
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Lauren Macaraeg, MD

  • Nephrology Faculty, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Medical School: Ross University
  • Residency: St. Mary's Medical Center
  • Fellowship: Nephrology, UCSD San Diego
  • Board Certified: ABIM: Internal Medicine and Nephrology

Kevin Man, MD

  • Chief, Gastroenterology/Hepatology, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Education Director, Gastroenterology/Hepatology
  • Medical School: Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
  • Residency: California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco
  • Fellowship: GI/Hepatology, California Pacific Medical Center
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology

Remo Morelli, MD, FACC

  • Chief of Staff, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Interventional Cardiology
  • Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: UCSF
  • Residency: St. Louis University and Washington University
  • Fellowship: Cardiology and Research: CVRI, UCSF
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Cardiology

C. Michael Neuwelt, MD, FACP

  • Education Director, Rheumatology, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCSF
  • Medical School: George Washington University
  • Residency: George Washington University
  • Fellowship: Rheumatology, George Washington University
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Rheumatology

Lauren Olson, MD

  • Primary Care Internal Medicine, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Medical School: Ross University
  • Residency: St. Mary's Medical Center
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Richard Podolin, MD, FACC

  • Chair, Board of Directors, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Interventional Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Director of Echocardiography
  • Education Director, EKG Curriculum
  • Medical School: Stanford University
  • Residency: University of Chicago
  • Fellowship: Cardiology, UCSF
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine & Cardiology

John Selle, DO

  • Primary Care Internal Medicine
  • Assistant Director of Ambulatory Care, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Medical School: Western University of Health Sciences
  • Residency: St. Mary's Medical Center
  • Board Certified, ABIM: Internal Medicine

Mark Wakasa, MD

  • Chair, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Director, Acute Rehabilitation Unit
  • Clinical Professor of PM&R, Stanford University
  • Medical School: Loyola University Stritch, Chicago
  • Residency: Resurrection Medical Center, Chicago, and Stanford University
  • Board Certified: Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Robert Weber, MD

  • Chief, Hematology-Oncology, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
  • Director, Cancer Center
  • Education Director, Hematology-Oncology
  • Medical School: University of St Louis School of Medicine
  • Residency: UC Davis Medical Center
  • Fellowship: Hematology-Oncology, Scripps Clinic, San Diego
  • Board Certified, Hematology and Oncology

Clinical Rotations

Inpatient Medical Wards

Day Medicine Teaching Teams

Two teams, each consisting of a UCSF hospitalist faculty attending, one senior resident, 2 interns, and 1-2 medical students, are assigned to onsite UCSF hospitalist faculty teaching teams at St. Mary's. The teaching teams' schedule functions on a q 4 day admitting cycle, admitting from 7:30 am to 5 pm every fourth day. Patients admitted overnight by the Swing Shift and Night Medicine teams are distributed equitably to the teaching and Direct Care (non- resident) teams each morning at 7:30 sign-out rounds. Residents interact closely with sub-specialty physicians and with consultants in other specialties. There are dedicated Swing Shift and Nocturnist hospitalist faculty to assure teaching and supervision round-the-clock.

Medicine Swing Shift Team

This team is designed to offload the both the day and night teams. It is staffed by a senior resident who works side by side with a swing shift hospitalist attending from 3 pm to 10 pm, signing out to the Night Medicine team with a "warm” one-on-one hand-off.

Night Medicine Team

Our Night Medicine team consists of a senior resident and two interns who cross-cover and admit together for 5 nights a week, with coverage by our Day Float system to enable 2 consecutive days off each week. Supervision is provided by dedicated UCSF hospitalist faculty 24/7 and work hours are from 8 pm – 8 am. Residents attend a structured sign-out supervised by the Program Director and Chief Resident at 7:30 AM.

Critical Care/ICU

Our ICU is a combined medical-surgical-cardiac Critical Care closed unit, supervised by Pulmonary-Critical Care and Cardiology faculty. The resident ICU team consists of 2 senior residents (one on days, one on nights) and three interns who rotate from day to night schedule. The rotation is typically 4 weeks long, split between days and nights. Our Day Float system provides residents and interns with coverage for their weekly day off. The ICU faculty provide daily small-group teaching of ICU and pulmonary physiology for the residents and subinterns assigned to the ICU rotation. The ICU resident team is responsible for running all Code Blue and Rapid Response Team activations throughout the hospital, with support and supervision from the ICU faculty and night hospitalist. Residents have ample opportunity to perform procedures such as central line insertion, thoracentesis, paracentesis, lumbar puncture, arterial blood gas sampling and bedside POCUS evaluations.

Clinic and Ambulatory Medicine Blocks in the Sister Mary Philippa Health Center

In the 6+1 (interns) / 4+1 (residents) rotation block system, residents attend their continuity/primary care clinic during dedicated week-long clinic blocks. Residents return to the clinic every 5th week, while categorical and preliminary interns return to the clinic every 7th week. All patients are seen by interns or residents who take on the role of the Primary Care Physician under the supervision of our teaching faculty. Residents are assigned to a clinic team and work in a group practice-like setting.

Clinic experience includes continuity clinics as well as all sub-specialties and specialties as listed below.

All trainees care for an assigned panel of diverse patients: our clinic population is multi-ethnic/multi-lingual and represents the underserved and working poor, many of whom live with chronic illnesses that require integrated multidisciplinary care. Our goal is to afford equal access to comprehensive care for all patients regardless of immigration status, health insurance status, or ability to pay. Patients receive care from a dedicated team of healthcare providers that includes highly skilled and specialized nurses, medical assistants, social workers, diabetes educators, podiatrists, general internists, subspecialists, surgical specialists, orthopedists, neurologists, dermatologists, optometrists and mental health professionals. Our average preceptor to resident ratio of 1:3 allows for timely and effective personalized teaching.

Why a clinic block rotation?

Your learning experience is entirely focused on Ambulatory Medicine without the stress of having to return to a busy in-patient ward after clinic.

Additional exposure includes:
  • Anticoagulation clinic
  • Diabetes education
  • Subspecialty clinics: Cardiology, Pulmonology, GI, Rheumatology, Nephrology, ID/HIV, Endocrinology
  • Specialty clinics: Neurology, GYN, Breast, Dermatology, Psychiatry, Orthopedics, Spine Surgery, Podiatry
  • Administrative time is allotted for follow up on lab results, medical documentation review, self-study and Quality improvement projects
  • Weekly Behavioral medicine curriculum seminars
  • Medical Safe Haven clinic for victims/survivors of Human Trafficking
  • Academic Half Day on Friday mornings for protected team learning
  • Quality improvement curriculum and workshops
  • Procedure lab
  • Sim code lab
  • Team bonding time
  • POCUS Image Review and Training
  • Case conference/Ambulatory report

2 - 4 Week Ambulatory Multispecialty Block Sister Mary Philippa Health Center

This required block rotation exposes senior residents to a vast array of clinical scenarios in the specialty and subspecialty clinics. The ambulatory resident takes on the important role of safe and reliable follow up for continuity clinic patients discharged from the hospital and serves as the clinic liaison for the assigned rotation period, in addition to rotating through a variety of specialty and subspecialty clinics.

Geriatric Medicine

During this 2-week required rotation, the resident visits nursing homes, assisted living facilities and makes home visits under the supervision of a geriatrics-focused core faculty physician. The resident will join the attending in his private practice and perform geriatric evaluations in the clinic and on home visits. The learning experience includes completion of comprehensive online curriculum modules published by the American Geriatric Society.

Primary Care Experience in Private Practice Settings

This 1-2-week elective gives senior residents the opportunity to learn about private practice in primary care internal medicine in the community. Patients are seen under one-on-one supervision by primary care internal medicine private practice faculty in a variety of practice settings including solo, foundation-based and traditional group practices.

Subspecialty Elective Experience

Our UCSF St. Mary's subspecialty faculty offer experience and training in both inpatient and outpatient consultative medicine

  • Gastroenterology
  • Nephrology
  • Cardiology
  • Endocrinology
  • Infectious Disease (HIV clinic)
  • Hematology-Oncology
  • Pulmonary
  • Rheumatology (offsite)

Non-Medicine Specialty Rotations

  • Radiation Oncology
  • Radiology
  • Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation

Emergency Medicine at UCSF-zSFGH

This required rotation for categorical and preliminary anesthesia PGY-1s exposes residents to the diverse population accessing care at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, our UCSF-affiliated county hospital and Level 1 trauma center. Residents will encounter a wide spectrum of emergent presentations, including trauma, acute intoxications, cardiovascular and neurological emergencies, sepsis, GYN emergencies and more.

Subspecialty Experiences at UCSF – zSFGH (senior residents only)

  • Hematology-Oncology
  • Endocrinology
  • Nephrology
  • Neurology (required)

Reports, Conferences, Seminars, and Retreats

Morning Report

Interns Report
8:00 – 8:30 am
Tuesday

Residents Report
8:00 - 8:30 am
Wednesday

Chief Resident / ICU Report
8:00 – 8:30 am
Thursday

Ambulatory Report
10:00 - 10:30 am
Friday

Conferences

Core Curriculum Conference
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Mon-Wed-Fri

Chest Conference
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Tuesday

EKG Conference
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Every other Wednesday

Behavioral Medicine Curriculum Conference
1:00 - 1:40 pm
Tues (Clinic Block)

Quality Project Curriculum Conference
11:00 - 12:00 pm
Fri (Clinic Block)

Resident/PD Town Hall meeting
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Final Friday of each month

Hospital Medicine and Critical Care Journal Clubs
12:00 - 1:00 pm
Twice a month

Board Review
5:00 - 6:00 pm
Once a week: Nov-May

Seminars

Career Development
Multiple sessions per year

Residents as Teachers Seminars
Multiple sessions per year

Procedural Skills Seminars
Academic Half Day, multiple sessions

Code Blue Simulation
Academic Half Day, multiple sessions

Foundations of Critical Care Support Seminars (Critical Care Society certification course)
Multiple sessions per year

POCUS Training for UCSF certification
Monthly scanning sessions and didactic curriculum

Protected Learning Time

Academic Half-Day

Friday mornings are protected learning time during all clinic weeks and Ambulatory blocks

Retreats

Resident-Faculty Retreat
Annual

Intern Retreat and Appreciation Day
Annual

Hospital Interprofessional Conferences and Rounds

Grand Rounds
Noon
Thursday

Tumor Board
8:00 am
Monday

Breast Panel Board
Noon
Monday

Hospital Multidisciplinary Rounds (MDR)
10:00 -11:00 am
Daily on Wards and ICU rotations

Clinic Huddle
8:50 – 9:00 am
Mon, Wed

Resident Support

Salary

Current 2024-2025 resident salaries are equal across all UCSF and UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital programs. Salary and benefits are negotiated with UCSF by the CIR resident union.

PGY1 $ 92,284

PGY2 $ 94,777

PGY3 $ 97,829

EAP Employee Assistance Services

The employee assistance program provides a confidential way of obtaining professional help to reduce the impact of personal or professional challenges for faculty, residents and staff. Services are available without cost for eligible resident employees, their spouse/partner and dependent children 24/7/365. All services are strictly confidential and voluntary and will not be disclosed to anyone, including your supervisor, health insurer, or employer without your written consent.

Faculty Mentors

Interns and residents are assigned a faculty advisor who will serve as a mentor providing guidance throughout training: considering career interest of the intern/resident, advisors are matched accordingly. Resident peer mentors are also assigned to new interns on a voluntary basis to provide support during the UME – GME transition.

Healthcare Coverage

Competitive health insurance coverage is provided to residents, dependents and domestic partners/spouses. Benefits include medical, dental, and vision insurance; prescription medication plans; life insurance, disability/accidental death and dismemberment insurance; legal insurance; extended sick leave and ACGME-compliant Leaves of Absence. Health coverage begins on your first day of employment.

Housing Support

Support for the cost of housing is negotiated by the residents' union and incorporated into resident salaries.

Resident Advisory Council

The Resident Advisory Committee (RAC) consists of elected representatives from each class who meet to discuss and advise the program leader and faculty regarding issues of interest or concern.

Library

An extensive online library of medical resources including PubMed, UpToDate, numerous journals, Clinical Key, Lexicom and other references is available through the hospital's intranet, with remote access available. All residents also have online access to the full UCSF library and may use the onsite facility as desired.

Meals

Meal cards for $300 per month are issued for use at the hospital cafeteria when assigned onsite. Additional hot meals are provided when working at night.

Call Rooms & Residents' Lounge

Private, individual on-call sleeping rooms with showers are provided for interns and residents, in addition to a well-appointed Residents' Lounge with adjoining bathroom, refrigerator, microwave, large flat screen television, state-of-the-art therapeutic massage recliner, computers, and a fantastic view of the San Francisco Bay.

Physician Well Being Committee

Confidential physician support is available to residents 24/7 regarding any sensitive issues which may impair the ability to practice safely and effectively.

Social Activities

The residency program hosts multiple social events throughout the year for interns and residents, e.g. Intern Appreciation Day, Residents' Retreat, wine tasting, graduation reception, and holidayf unctions organized by chief residents and the Resident Wellness Committee.

Vacation and Leave

Four weeks paid vacation is provided for all interns and residents. Parental, family and medical leave is offered in accordance with ACGME policy.

Jeopardy Coverage

A jeopardy call system is in place for interns and residents to provide no-payback coverage for colleagues who are ill or experience an emergency.

How to Apply to the Internal Medicine Residency Program

The Internal Medicine Residency Program participates in the National Resident Matching Program (NRMP). For information about the Matching Program log on to www.nrmp.org or contact the NRMP at (202) 828-0676, toll-free at (866) 617-5837 or email [email protected].

To apply to the UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program you must submit your application via the Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS). Applications that are not submitted through ERAS will not be accepted for processing. Please contact your student affairs office for information regarding your school's processing procedures for ERAS applications and software.

Internal Medicine Residency Program Applicant Requirements:

  • Complete application through ERAS before December 31
  • USMLE transcript confirming passing performance on Step 1 and Step 2 numerical score
  • LOR from Chair of Medicine, 2 additional LORs from faculty supervisors, at least one from an inpatient internal medicine attending
  • Valid ECFMG Certificate (IMGs)
  • Recent graduation and current USA meaningful clinical experience (IMG's)
  • US Citizenship, permanent residency or EAD qualification

If you have additional questions or would like more information about our Internal Medicine Residency program, please email the Residency Coordinator at [email protected] with specific questions.

Medical Student Rotations

UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital offers several inpatient elective rotations for fourth-year students attending LCME and AOA accredited medical schools.

St. Mary's has a student affiliation agreement with the California NorthState University School of Medicine to host month-long MS3 Core Medicine rotations. Most ward teams have one third-year medical student at any given time and typically have a fourth year sub-intern as well for most of the year. Sub-interns may apply from any affiliated school of medicine.

1. Pulmonary Medicine

MS4 elective designed to introduce students to the evaluation and management of patients with a wide variety of pulmonary diseases in the inpatient ward/ICU and outpatient settings, working with the Chair of Medicine and the ICU Director/Chief of Critical Care.

2. Internal Medicine Sub-Internship

MS4 elective (4-week minimum) @ UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital
Acting internship rotation focused on inpatient management of patients admitted to the UCSF Hospitalist teaching services

3. Intensive Care Medicine MS4 elective in the ICU, focused on the management of critically ill medical, surgical and cardiac ICU patients

How to Apply for Medical Student Rotations

If you are currently a 4th-year medical student interested in applying for a 4-week sub-internship in the Department of Medicine, please be advised that a partial application (send only those documents listed below) must be submitted to the Internal Medicine Residency Coordinator at least 3 months in advance of the requested time frame. Applications for clerkships are subject to approval based on criteria and availability.

The Sub-Internship in Internal Medicine requires a minimum of 4-weeks. At the conclusion of four weeks, we provide your student affairs coordinator with a completed evaluation by the attending and team resident. During Sub-Internship, students function as integral members of a ward team and are expected to carry similar responsibilities to those of interns: direct patient care, on-call admitting duty, pager-response, twice daily iPass sign-out, lecture/ morning report/ noon conference/ Grand Rounds participation and engagement with interdisciplinary team rounds. Students are provided with meal cards for complimentary lunch and on-call meals and are welcome to use the Residents' Lounge.

Students are not provided with lodging, stipends, health insurance, liability insurance, lab coats, or laundry service. Parking is available in the hospital's main garage for a daily fee and street parking is available. Students are required to demonstrate completion of HIPAA training through their school and must provide proof that their school covers them for malpractice insurance.

Students will receive a photo ID badge prior to their rotation and are provided with hospital scrubs and PPE to be worn as directed. An attestation of satisfactory background investigation will be requested by our department and must be completed by the student's medical school.

Please include only the following documents when submitting an application:

  1. Current CV
  2. A statement describing your specific interest in Internal Medicine; your reasons for wanting to participate in an elective rotation at UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital in San Francisco; your specific attraction to training in an academic community-based program; and your connections to, or interest in, the SF Bay Area community
  3. Reference letter from a faculty physician who supervised you during your third-year medicine rotation (on letterhead and signed)
  4. A list of all volunteer work you have done with underserved populations
  5. Please provide the official transcript confirming passage of USMLE Step 1 (or COMLEX equivalent).

Attachment A- Student Information Page
Attachment B (section I only)- please do not complete Section II at this time
Attachment C- Medical Student Contact Information

Send the above documents to:

Kathy Banks, Residency Coordinator
Internal Medicine Residency, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital

Email: [email protected]

Following approval of applications, students will receive an email tentatively confirming rotation dates and requesting additional documentation, i.e. the complete Application to include Attachment B, Section II: a letter from your Dean or authorized school official (on letterhead w/contact #s) approving your rotation and dates.

Review of your complete application will commence registration and final confirmation of rotation dates; incomplete applications will not be accepted. Please note we require an AAMC Uniform Affiliation Agreement with your school prior to beginning a rotation.

Please be advised that our Hospital does not offer observerships or externships.

Careers After Residency

CLASS OF 2024

Francisco Cai, MD

Primary Care, Seattle

Tiffany Chi, MD

Primary Care, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Burlingame

Andrew Dao, MD

Primary Care,Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Burlingame

Grant Gifford, DO

Nephrology Fellowship, UCSF

Chloe Jones, MD

Primary Care, Sutter Health, Richmond/Oakland

Deepti Nagarajan-Rao, MD

Primary Care,Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Fremont

Kevin Nguyen, MD

Applying to Rheumatology fellowship after interim Primary Care year

Willy Tang, MD

Primary Care,UCSF – Marin Health, Mill Valley

CLASS OF 2023

Rachit Anand, DO
Hospitalist, Mills-Peninsula Medical Center

Sarah El-Halees, MD
Hospitalist, Kaiser South San Francisco

Anthony Nguyen, DO
Nephrology Fellowship, University of California San Diego
Primary Care, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Fremont

Elizabeth Phillips, MD
Hospitalist, Kaiser Santa Rosa and QI Faculty, UCSF Health St. Mary's Hospital

Mona Raphael, MD
Hospitalist, Kaiser Santa Rosa

Lewis Schendowich, MD
Hematology-Oncology Fellowship, Georgetown University, Washington DC

Ken Wong, DO
Primary Care, Kaiser San Francisco

CLASS OF 2022

Robert Abbott MD
Hospital Medicine and Health Informatics, Oroville, CA

Alishba Ata MD
Primary Care, San Francisco

Alyssa Caplan, MD
Fellowship: Gastroenterology, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco

Anisha Jivraj, MD
Primary Care, Hoag Medical Center, Newport Beach

David Kwon, DO
Hospital Medicine, Alta Bates-Sutter, Berkeley

Pooja Nair, MD
Hospital Medicine Faculty, UCSF

David Nathanson, DO
Primary Care, Kaiser Permanente, East Bay

Sam Ng, MD
Fellowship: Rheumatology, Scripps, San Diego

CLASS OF 2021

Susan Aminzai, MD
Primary Care, St. Bernardine's Medical Center, Riverside, CA

Joseph Azzam, MD
Fellowship: Rheumatology, Cedars-Sinai, Los Angeles

Justin Chaudhary MD
Primary Care Faculty, UC San Diego

Michael Crone, DO
Fellowship: Rheumatology, Scripps, San Diego

Alex Dao, MD
Anaesthesia Residency, University of New Mexico

Michael Lee, MD
Fellowship: Allergy and Immunology, Scripps, San Diego

Aileen Nguyen, MD
Hospital Medicine, East Bay Area

Enderpreet Saran MD
Primary Care, Kaiser Permanente, San Jose

CLASS OF 2020

Sohrab Amiri, MD, MS
Hospital Medicine, John Muir Medical Center, Walnut Creek

Lauren Macaraeg, MD
Fellowship: Nephrology, University of California San Diego

Michael Conte, DO
Fellowship: Infectious Disease. Oregon Health & Science University

Elizabeth Kaufman, MD

Nishita Nigam, MD
Hospital Medicine Faculty, UCSF

Safa Hammami, MD
Fellowship: Endocrinology. Oregon Health & Science University

Michele Burk, DO
Primary Care and Addiction Medicine, Kaiser Permanente, East Bay

Farah Kassamali, MD

Gastroenterology Fellowship, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco