Faculty Mentors

Health Services & Implementation Science Co-Lead: Dr. Finlayson is a colorectal surgeon trained in health services research with expertise in the treatment of colon and rectal cancer, ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease. She is a specialist in minimally invasive surgical techniques. Her research examines functional outcomes after major, high-risk surgery in frail older adults and is currently PI on NIA-funded R-01 and R-21 projects. Dr. Finlayson is Director of the Department of Surgery Faculty Mentoring Program and leads the health services research core on the UCSF resident research committee. She has served as mentor for numerous trainees and several junior faculty who have been recently funded by career development awards.

Dr. Finlayson will mentor research trainees in the use of large datasets to evaluate outcomes in older adults undergoing surgery, and in studies of pre-operative “prehabilitation” services to improve surgical outcomes in older adults.

Health Services & Implementation Science Co-Lead: Dr. Wick is a colorectal surgeon serving as both the surgery informatics lead and medical director of perioperative quality and safety for UCSF Health. Her work spans hospital operational, quality improvement, implementation science and research spheres. Dr. Wick leads the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Safety Program for Improving Surgical Care and Recovery and contributed to the AHRQ ACTION Safety Program for Surgery, overseeing four surgical residents.

A range of opportunities are available to trainees in the realm of quality improvement and implementation science, focusing on geriatrics, pediatrics, anesthesiology and more.

Dr. Auerbach’s research goals span the assessment of quality and outcomes of care, quality improvement intervention design/evaluation, particularly in the context of electronic health records, and studies of physician specialties and care systems, especially the hospitalist model. He has recently assembled a hospital consortium entitled the 'Hospital Medicine Reengineering Network” to further these goals on a larger scale and provide support to trainees and physicians seeking to measure their performance. He has been deeply focused on the development of mentees, most recently becoming Core Faculty for UCSF’s Clinical Informatics Fellowship.

Project opportunities include studies of determinants of medical error, large-scale evaluation of quality measurement programs, development and evaluation of healthcare improvement interventions, and innovative implementation models.

In addition to being board certified in general, colon and rectal surgery, Dr. Rhoads’ research examines the relationship between delivery of evidence-based cancer care and survival disparities in California. She developed and uses a novel data set comprised of population-based cancer registry data linked to statewide clinical discharge, emergency room, ambulatory surgery data and hospital financial characteristics. As Director of the Office of Community Engagement for the HDFCCC, she provides leadership for UCSF institutional investigators in their engagement with local communities. Dr. Rhoads has served as a mentor across the training spectrum from premedical and pre-doctoral students (5); to resident trainees and fellows (5) as well as junior faculty (2).

Opportunities for T32 mentees include evaluating the quality of cancer care; correlating quality with outcomes; implementing a cancer quality improvement tool in safety net settings; community engaged research in cancer care delivery and access as well as geospatial analysis of cancer disparities, and developing and implementing targeted recruitment strategies in underserved communities (including the WISDOM study).

Dr. Scheuner-Purcell is an internist and clinical geneticist with research interests in health services and implementation research, addressing family health history, screening for Lynch syndrome (the most common cause of hereditary colon cancer), and strategies for improving communication of genetic test results between the laboratory and ordering clinician. As former Chief of Medical Genetics at the VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Dr Scheuner-Purcell has mentored many genetic fellows and residents.

Trainees can participate in projects examining care coordination to facilitate precision medicine services in the Veterans Health Administration, as well as recruitment of veteran’s for the WISDOM study.

Dr. Smith’s research program focuses on improving palliative care for vulnerable and dependent elders. He has interests in bioethics and improving patient physician communication, applying a range of complementary methodologies, including analyses of large datasets, qualitative in-person interviews conceptual ethical analysis. He is a co-founder of ePrognosis.org, an online compendium of prognostic calculators. Among other mentorship roles, he serves as Co-Director of UCSF’s NIA-funded T32 training program in aging research and was awarded the 2019 UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Mentoring Award at the Associate Professor Level.

Trainees can participate in Dr. Smith's research program focused on developing better prognostic models for older adults, and improving communication of prognosis.

Dr Sosa’s clinical interests are in surgical oncology, focused primarily on the management of thyroid cancer. Her research interests are in health services, clinical trials and translational research, focusing on identifying ways to optimize patient outcomes following surgery and in the arena of endocrine neoplasia and thyroid cancer in particular. Dr. Sosa has mentored approximately 75 students, residents, fellows and junior faculty over her career.

Trainees can participate in her endocrine surgery research group and ongoing research efforts focused in cancer registry development, clinical trials, and outcomes research in surgical oncology, including R-01/FDA collaboration.

Dr. Walter is a clinician-researcher, a national leader in evaluating the real-world risks and benefits of cancer screening in older patients. She has developed often-cited methodology demonstrating the fundamental importance of life expectancy rather than age in determining benefits and risks of screening. Having received multiple UCSF mentor awards, her current activities include Director of the Older Americans Independence Center Research Education Component and is Associate Director of the UCSF CTSI Career Development (KL2 Scholars) Program.

Trainees can participate in Dr. Walter's health services and outcomes research program through projects that inform individualizing cancer screening and treatment decisions among older adults using large VA and Medicare databases.

Dr. Wilsons’s current research focuses on economic and outcome analyses, including the cost of illness and cost effectiveness analyses of cancer and specific chronic diseases (including rare diseases) and how new diagnostics, treatments, and patterns of care affect the costs and outcomes of these diseases. She is currently working with the FDA to incorporate patient preference into the approval of devices using behavioral economics discrete choice approaches. Dr. Wilson has mentored multiple post-doctoral fellows. She runs the Program for Outcomes and Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy Studies which has mentored numerous students and fellows across clinical departments, enabling them to enter clinical or policy related careers.

Trainee opportunities include participation discrete choice experiments of new approaches to cancer screening and of adherence decision for oral cancer drugs given cost information. Training in the conduct of cost-effectiveness analyses of new cancer treatments as well as new approaches to data generation in the course of care (OneSource).