Clinical: I care for critically ill Veterans as Co-Director of the Intensive Care Unit and attending physician at the San Francisco VAMC. I also see outpatients in our general pulmonary clinic and direct the Pulmonary Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Clinic, which is part of the SFVAMC Multidisciplinary ALS Team. ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) is twice as common in military veterans than in the general population. Our interprofessional ALS team approaches care with a patient-centered philosophy and manages all aspects of healthcare for our Veterans with ALS. In addition to patient care, I am actively involved in ICU quality improvement, clinical education and research.

Education: I am actively involved in undergraduate and graduate medical education at UCSF because teaching students, residents and fellows is one the best parts of my job. I serve as Program Director for the UCSF Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Program, and I'm actively involved in projects focused on our curriculum, assessment, and fellow well being. In the School of Medicine, I am a medical student coach for the UCSF Bridges Curriculum, course director for the VA Critical Care Medicine student elective, and do small group teaching on a variety of topics. One of primary interests is teaching point of care ultrasound to students, residents and fellows. I also develop and coordinate the curriculum for the multidisciplinary ICU rotation for residents from medicine, surgery, anesthesia and emergency medicine, and medical students. My interests include areas of investigation within education, including patient/family communication, interprofessional communication, patient handoffs, and using clinical simulation to teach ICU care.

Research: My research interests include patient-ventilator interaction, bedside ultrasound in the intensive care unit, and patient/family communication. I have expertise in lung epithelial barrier function in health and in disease, particularly regulatory pathways controlling epithelial barrier function in ARDS, ventilator-associated lung injury, asthma and lung fibrosis.