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OVERVIEW:
Eric Widera is a clinician-educator in the Division of Geriatrics. 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. Eric accomplishes this through various leadership roles, including Director of the Hospice & Palliative Care Service at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and Program Director for the Geriatrics Fellowship at UCSF. Eric received his medical school training at UCSF and his internal medicine training at Mount Sinai Hospital. He returned to UCSF to complete a fellowship in Geriatric Medicine. He joined the faculty at UCSF in August of 2006. Since then, Eric has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards including a Geriatric Academic Career Award (GACA) and the Hastings Center Cunniff-Dixon Physician Award. He has also been selected by the Hartford Foundation as a Center of Excellence Faculty Scholar.

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 a half-day a week outpatient Palliative and Symptom Management Clinic. Eric’s other clinical responsibilities include attending on the internal medicine inpatient ward service at the San Francisco VA and supervising geriatrics fellows in caring for veterans residing in the Community Living Center.

ACADEMIC 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. He 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. Eric is also the Program Director for the Geriatrics fellowship at UCSF. His other interests include how the use of social media sites, like GeriPal.org, can influence medical education and clinical practice.