Christine Ritchie, MD, MSPH, FACP, FAAHPM, is the Harris Fishbon Distinguished Professor in Clinical Translational Research and Aging in the Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF).

A graduate of Davidson College and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, she completed her internal medicine residency, chief residency and geriatric fellowship at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She is a board certified geriatrician and palliative care physician and has a long-standing experience in clinical care delivery models, medical home care and advanced illness research. She is a recipient of an NIA-funded Geriatric Academic Leadership Award in Advanced Illness and Multimorbidity. She is also an inaugural member of the NIH-funded national Palliative Care Research Cooperative. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Palliative Medicine, serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences and is on the Board of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Ritchie serves on the Public Policy and Research Committees of the American Academy of Homecare Physicians, has built and directed integrated health care programs that included medical house calls and has previously created a highly successful medical registry for managing patients with advanced chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in two health care systems.

Dr. Ritchie’s goal is to build a research program at UCSF at the interface of palliative care and geriatrics that seeks to improve quality of life and patient outcomes for those experiencing complex serious illnesses. Emphasis areas are in the area of chronic serious illness, multimorbidity, symptom burden and patient care complexity. She is currently studying the impact of symptom burden on health care utilization in individuals with multiple chronic conditions including cancer. She is also evaluating how patient-centered monitoring technology can be used to support patients and families with serious illness in their transition from the hospital to home.