Eric Widera, MD
OVERVIEW:
Eric Widera is a Professor of Medicine and clinician-educator in the Division of Geriatrics at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). His main goal is to improve the care provided to elderly patients with severe chronic and/or terminal conditions through program development and educational innovations. Dr. Widera is the Director of the Hospice & Palliative Care Service at the San Francisco VA Medical Center, a past Board of Directors member for the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine (AAHPM), and past president and chair of the board for the Association of Directors of Geriatrics Academic Programs (ADGAP). Eric has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including a Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA), the Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award, AAHPM Hospice and Palliative Medicine Leaders Under 40 award, and the AAHPM PDIA Palliative Medicine National Leadership Award. He is also a co-founder of GeriPal, a Geriatrics and Palliative Care podcast, as well as ePrognosis, an online set of prognostic calculators for the elderly.
CLINICAL ACTIVITIES:
Dr. Widera's clinical activities are primarily based at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. He attends on and is the Director of the Hospice & Palliative Care Service at the VA. This is a busy and growing service that performs inpatient palliative care consults in the acute hospital setting and the VA Community Living Center (CLC). The Hospice and Palliative Care Service also provides primary care for a 10-bed hospice unit located within the CLC, as well as serves veterans living in the community through an outpatient Palliative Care Clinic.
EDUCATIONAL FOCUS:
Dr. Widera's academic focus is on improving the care we give to elderly patients with severe chronic and/or terminal conditions through program development and educational innovations. For over a decade, he was the director of the Geriatrics fellowship at UCSF. He currently oversees a host of interdisciplinary learners who rotate on the Hospice and Palliative Care Service at the San Francisco VA, including internal medicine residents, pharmacy trainees, and geriatrics and palliative care fellows. His other interests include how the use of social media and podcasts, like GeriPal.org, can influence medical education and clinical practice.