Eric Widera, MD

Professor of Clinical Medicine
Medicine
+1 415 221-4810 ext. 24614

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 president of 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 blog and 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 nearly 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, social work interns, and nursing students. His other interests include how the use of social media and podcasts, like GeriPal.org, can influence medical education and clinical practice.

Publications: 

Top Ten Tips Palliative Care Clinicians Should Know About Caring for Patients Under Guardianships.

Journal of palliative medicine

Bhowmik D, Balch Hurme S, Sandhu J, Jeon J, Mujahid SS, Pelissier L, Widera E, Cohen AB, Kohn NA, Galvez M, Alkire V, Teaster PB, Rosa WE, Pan CX

"My mom is a fighter": A qualitative analysis of the use of combat metaphors in intensive care unit clinician notes.

Chest

Kim S, Mills H, Brender T, McGowan S, Widera E, Chapman AC, Harrison KL, Lee S, Smith AK, Bamman D, Gologorskaya O, Cobert J

Nephrologists' perspectives and experiences with hospice among older adults with end-stage kidney disease.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Wachterman MW, Sinha A, Leveille T, Waikar SS, Widera E, Romero K, Bokhour B

Law not loopholes: Medical aid in dying for those with dementia.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Briscoe J, Widera E

Who gets to decide on what it means to have Alzheimer's disease?

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Widera E

Fellowship-trained physicians who let their geriatric medicine certification lapse: A national survey.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Ross K, Lynn L, Foley KT, Barczi SR, Widera E, Parks S, Luz C, Colburn JL, Leff B

Monoclonal anti-amyloid antibodies for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease and the hesitant geriatrician.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Chin NA, Widera E, Brangman SA, Karlawish J

Ushering in a New Era of Alzheimer Disease Therapy.

JAMA

Widera EW, Brangman SA, Chin NA

Breaking the Link Between Enrollment in Hospice and Discontinuation of Dialysis.

JAMA internal medicine

Romero K, Widera E, Wachterman MW

Looking back, moving forward: A practical guide to implementing the updated ACGME geriatric medicine Milestones 2.0.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Streiter S, Foley K, Bennett K, Widera E, Barczi S, Fernandez H, Cho MH, Knight A, DeLong R, Eubank K, Gajadhar R, Kirby J, Edgar L

"Captive by the Uncertainty"-Experiences with Anticipatory Guidance for People Living with Dementia and Their Caregivers at a Specialty Dementia Clinic.

Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD

Shafir A, Ritchie CS, Garrett SB, Bernstein Sideman A, Naasan G, Merrilees J, Widera E, Flint L, Harrison KL

A single center evaluation of applicant experiences in virtual interviews across eight internal medicine subspecialty fellowship programs.

Medical education online

Huppert LA, Hsu G, Elnachef N, Flint L, Frank JA, Gensler LS, Hsiao EC, Khanna RR, Qasim A, Schwartz BS, Widera E, Zapata C, Babik JM

I Am Worried About Falling: What Do I Need to Know?

JAMA internal medicine

Lederle LI, Widera E

Virtual Interinstitutional Palliative Care Consultation during the COVID-19 Pandemic in New York City.

Journal of palliative medicine

Asprec L, Blinderman CD, Berlin A, Callahan ME, Widera E, Periyakoil VS, Smith AK, Nakagawa S

Evaluation of Time to Benefit of Statins for the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Events in Adults Aged 50 to 75 Years: A Meta-analysis.

JAMA internal medicine

Yourman LC, Cenzer IS, Boscardin WJ, Nguyen BT, Smith AK, Schonberg MA, Schoenborn NL, Widera EW, Orkaby A, Rodriguez A, Lee SJ

Family Meetings on Behalf of Patients with Serious Illness.

The New England journal of medicine

Widera E, Anderson WG, Santhosh L, McKee KY, Smith AK, Frank J

Pandemic Palliative Care Consultations Spanning State and Institutional Borders.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Nakagawa S, Berlin A, Widera E, Periyakoil VS, Smith AK, Blinderman CD

AGS Position Statement: Resource Allocation Strategies and Age-Related Considerations in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Farrell TW, Ferrante LE, Brown T, Francis L, Widera E, Rhodes R, Rosen T, Hwang U, Witt LJ, Thothala N, Liu SW, Vitale CA, Braun UK, Stephens C, Saliba D

Rationing Limited Health Care Resources in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond: Ethical Considerations Regarding Older Adults.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Farrell TW, Francis L, Brown T, Ferrante LE, Widera E, Rhodes R, Rosen T, Hwang U, Witt LJ, Thothala N, Liu SW, Vitale CA, Braun UK, Stephens C, Saliba D

Making Medical Treatment Decisions for Unrepresented Patients in the ICU. An Official American Thoracic Society/American Geriatrics Society Policy Statement.

American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine

Pope TM, Bennett J, Carson SS, Cederquist L, Cohen AB, DeMartino ES, Godfrey DM, Goodman-Crews P, Kapp MB, Lo B, Magnus DC, Reinke LF, Shirley JL, Siegel MD, Stapleton RD, Sudore RL, Tarzian AJ, Thornton JD, Wicclair MR, Widera EW, White DB

Prognostication and Proactive Planning in COVID-19.

Journal of pain and symptom management

Newport KB, Malhotra S, Widera E

Prognostication in Serious Illness.

The Medical clinics of North America

Martin EJ, Widera E

Primary Palliative Care.

The Medical clinics of North America

Widera E

Caring for Unbefriended Older Adults and Adult Orphans: A Clinician Survey.

Clinical gerontologist

Farrell TW, Catlin C, Chodos AH, Naik AD, Widera E, Moye J

Making and Measuring an Impact in a Digital World: The Role of Social Media and the Medical Journal.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Widera E, Trucil DE, Smith AK

Geriatrics Literature 2017 Year in Review.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Willham K, Covinsky K, Widera E

Six-Month Emergency Department Use among Older Adults Following Jail Incarceration.

Journal of urban health : bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine

Humphreys J, Ahalt C, Stijacic-Cenzer I, Widera E, Williams B

Geriatrics Literature 2016 Year in Review.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Willham K, Covinsky K, Widera E

AGS Position Statement: Making Medical Treatment Decisions for Unbefriended Older Adults.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Farrell TW, Widera E, Rosenberg L, Rubin CD, Naik AD, Braun U, Torke A, Li I, Vitale C, Shega J

Partial Codes-A Symptom of a Larger Problem.

JAMA internal medicine

Zapata JA, Widera E

Variability in Hospice Care at the Very End of Life.

JAMA internal medicine

Widera E, Talebreza S

Teaching geriatric fellows how to teach: a needs assessment targeting geriatrics fellowship program directors.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Rivera V, Yukawa M, Aronson L, Widera E

Usefulness and effect of online prognostic calculators.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

McClymont KM, Lee SJ, Schonberg MA, Widera E, Miao Y, Smith AK

The hospice referral.

American family physician

Talebreza S, Widera E

Developing entrustable professional activities as the basis for assessment of competence in an internal medicine residency: a feasibility study.

Journal of general internal medicine

Hauer KE, Soni K, Cornett P, Kohlwes J, Hollander H, Ranji SR, Ten Cate O, Widera E, Calton B, O'Sullivan PS

Predicting 10-year mortality for older adults.

JAMA

Cruz M, Covinsky K, Widera EW, Stijacic-Cenzer I, Lee SJ

Five things physicians and patients should question in hospice and palliative medicine.

Journal of pain and symptom management

Fischberg D, Bull J, Casarett D, Hanson LC, Klein SM, Rotella J, Smith T, Storey CP, Teno JM, Widera E

Something just doesn't smell quite right.

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Lakin JR, Widera E, Doe EW

Managing grief and depression at the end of life.

American family physician

Widera EW, Block SD

Prognostic indices for older adults: a systematic review.

JAMA

Yourman LC, Lee SJ, Schonberg MA, Widera EW, Smith AK

Approaching patients and family members who hope for a miracle.

Journal of pain and symptom management

Widera EW, Rosenfeld KE, Fromme EK, Sulmasy DP, Arnold RM

Nausea and other nonpain symptoms in long-term care.

Clinics in geriatric medicine

Gonzales MJ, Widera E

The epidemiology of pain during the last 2 years of life.

Annals of internal medicine

Smith AK, Cenzer IS, Knight SJ, Puntillo KA, Widera E, Williams BA, Boscardin WJ, Covinsky KE

Presenteeism: a public health hazard.

Journal of general internal medicine

Widera E, Chang A, Chen HL

Hospitalization as an opportunity to integrate palliative care in heart failure management.

Current opinion in supportive and palliative care

Widera E, Pantilat SZ

Geriatrics and Aging

Pain Management in Moderate and Advanced Dementias.

Widera, E, Smith, AK.

Pulmonary artery sarcoma misdiagnosed as chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension.

The Mount Sinai journal of medicine, New York

Widera E, Sulica R