Brian Block, MD
Assistant Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

Dr. Block has interests in medical ethics, communication, and decision-making during critical illness. He is also a recognized educator with experience developing and studying novel curricula. He sees patients in the UCSF General Pulmonary clinic and attends in the intensive care unit as well as the pulmonary function lab.

Dr. Block graduated from Harvard Medical School, completed Internal Medicine training at Columbia University, and was also a Chief Medical Resident at Columbia. He then came to UCSF to complete fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine. During his research fellowship, he studied advance care planning among patients with critical illness. He also earned grant funding to study an intervention aimed at enhancing communication between general internists and medical subspecialty services, to improve teaching and patient care.

• Variation in COVID-19 Mortality Across 117 US Hospitals in High- and Low-Burden Settings.
  Journal of hospital medicine 2021 Block BL, Martin TM, Boscardin WJ, Covinsky KE, Mourad M, Hu LL, Smith AK
• Five things every clinician should know about AI ethics in intensive care.
  Intensive care medicine 2020 Shaw JA, Sethi N, Block BL
• Restoring the Story and Creating a Valuable Clinical Note.
  Annals of internal medicine 2020 Gantzer HE, Block BL, Hobgood LC, Tufte J
• Getting Neighborly in 2030: A Shared Fellow Workspace Improves Communication, Teaching, and Burnout.
  Journal of graduate medical education 2020 Block BL, Anderson D, O'Brien B, Babik J
• During COVID-19, Outpatient Advance Care Planning Is Imperative: We Need All Hands on Deck.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2020 Block BL, Smith AK, Sudore RL
• Patterns and Trends in Advance Care Planning Among Older Adults Who Received Intensive Care at the End of Life.
  JAMA internal medicine 2020 Block BL, Jeon SY, Sudore RL, Matthay MA, Boscardin WJ, Smith AK
• Could Decisions to Limit Treatment Contribute to Mortality Differences between Patients with Different Presepsis Trajectories?
  Annals of the American Thoracic Society 2019 Block BL, Matthay M
• The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics
  Universal Advance Directives--Necessary but not Sufficient 2019 Brian L. Block, Alexander K. Smith, Rebecca L. Sudore
• Does the Term Intensive Care Unit Promote Aggressive Treatment?
  JAMA internal medicine 2018 Block BL
• Two-Week Resident-As-Teacher Program May Improve Peer Feedback and Online Evaluation Completion
  Medical Science Educator 2018 Arielle L Langer, Samuel Bernard, Brian L Block
• Unusual Radiographic Presentation of Pneumocystis Pneumonia in a Patient with AIDS.
  Case reports in infectious diseases 2017 Block BL, Mehta T, Ortiz GM, Ferris SP, Vu TH, Huang L, Cattamanchi A
• Triple Oral Antithrombotic Therapy: A Teachable Moment.
  JAMA internal medicine 2016 Nouri SN, Block BL
• Massive Rectal Hemorrhage After Prostate Biopsy: A Teachable Moment.
  JAMA internal medicine 2016 Laracy JC, Regalbuto R, Block BL
• Hypo-Hypo: A Complex Metabolic Disorder.
  Annals of the American Thoracic Society 2016 Block BL, Bernard S, Schwartzstein RM
• Reduced replication capacity of NL4-3 recombinant viruses encoding reverse transcriptase-integrase sequences from HIV-1 elite controllers.
  Journal of acquired immune deficiency syndromes (1999) 2011 Brumme ZL, Li C, Miura T, Sela J, Rosato PC, Brumme CJ, Markle TJ, Martin E, Block BL, Trocha A, Kadie CM, Allen TM, Pereyra F, Heckerman D, Walker BD, Brockman MA
• Using an agent-based model to analyze the dynamic communication network of the immune response.
  Theoretical biology & medical modelling 2011 Folcik VA, Broderick G, Mohan S, Block B, Ekbote C, Doolittle J, Khoury M, Davis L, Marsh CB
• The major genetic determinants of HIV-1 control affect HLA class I peptide presentation.
  Science (New York, N.Y.) 2010 International HIV Controllers Study, Pereyra F, Jia X, McLaren PJ, Telenti A, de Bakker PI, Walker BD, Ripke S, Brumme CJ, Pulit SL, Carrington M, Kadie CM, Carlson JM, Heckerman D, Graham RR, Plenge …
• Impaired replication capacity of acute/early viruses in persons who become HIV controllers.
  Journal of virology 2010 Miura T, Brumme ZL, Brockman MA, Rosato P, Sela J, Brumme CJ, Pereyra F, Kaufmann DE, Trocha A, Block BL, Daar ES, Connick E, Jessen H, Kelleher AD, Rosenberg E, Markowitz M, Schafer K, Vaida F, …
• Persistent low-level viremia in HIV-1 elite controllers and relationship to immunologic parameters.
  The Journal of infectious diseases 2009 Pereyra F, Palmer S, Miura T, Block BL, Wiegand A, Rothchild AC, Baker B, Rosenberg R, Cutrell E, Seaman MS, Coffin JM, Walker BD
• Rapid HIV testing program implementation: lessons from the emergency department.
  International journal of emergency medicine 2009 Arbelaez C, Block B, Losina E, Wright EA, Reichmann WM, Mikulinsky R, Solomon JD, Dooley MM, Walensky RP
• Differential neutralization of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) replication in autologous CD4 T cells by HIV-specific cytotoxic T lymphocytes.
  Journal of virology 2009 Chen H, Piechocka-Trocha A, Miura T, Brockman MA, Julg BD, Baker BM, Rothchild AC, Block BL, Schneidewind A, Koibuchi T, Pereyra F, Allen TM, Walker BD
• HLA-associated viral mutations are common in human immunodeficiency virus type 1 elite controllers.
  Journal of virology 2009 Miura T, Brumme CJ, Brockman MA, Brumme ZL, Pereyra F, Block BL, Trocha A, John M, Mallal S, Harrigan PR, Walker BD
• HLA-B57/B*5801 human immunodeficiency virus type 1 elite controllers select for rare gag variants associated with reduced viral replication capacity and strong cytotoxic T-lymphocyte [corrected] recognition.
  Journal of virology 2008 Miura T, Brockman MA, Schneidewind A, Lobritz M, Pereyra F, Rathod A, Block BL, Brumme ZL, Brumme CJ, Baker B, Rothchild AC, Li B, Trocha A, Cutrell E, Frahm N, Brander C, Toth I, Arts EJ, Allen TM, …
• HLA-associated alterations in replication capacity of chimeric NL4-3 viruses carrying gag-protease from elite controllers of human immunodeficiency virus type 1.
  Journal of virology 2008 Miura T, Brockman MA, Brumme ZL, Brumme CJ, Pereyra F, Trocha A, Block BL, Schneidewind A, Allen TM, Heckerman D, Walker BD
• Revising expectations from rapid HIV tests in the emergency department.
  Annals of internal medicine 2008 Walensky RP, Arbelaez C, Reichmann WM, Walls RM, Katz JN, Block BL, Dooley M, Hetland A, Kimmel S, Solomon JD, Losina E
• Marked epitope- and allele-specific differences in rates of mutation in human immunodeficiency type 1 (HIV-1) Gag, Pol, and Nef cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitopes in acute/early HIV-1 infection.
  Journal of virology 2008 Brumme ZL, Brumme CJ, Carlson J, Streeck H, John M, Eichbaum Q, Block BL, Baker B, Kadie C, Markowitz M, Jessen H, Kelleher AD, Rosenberg E, Kaldor J, Yuki Y, Carrington M, Allen TM, Mallal S, Altfeld…
• Genetic characterization of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 in elite controllers: lack of gross genetic defects or common amino acid changes.
  Journal of virology 2008 Miura T, Brockman MA, Brumme CJ, Brumme ZL, Carlson JM, Pereyra F, Trocha A, Addo MM, Block BL, Rothchild AC, Baker BM, Flynn T, Schneidewind A, Li B, Wang YE, Heckerman D, Allen TM, Walker BD
• Combined N- and C-terminal truncation of human apolipoprotein A-I yields a folded, functional central domain.
  Biochemistry 2005 Beckstead JA, Block BL, Bielicki JK, Kay CM, Oda MN, Ryan RO