Catherine Lau, MD
Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine
Catherine Lau is a Professor of Clinical Medicine at UCSF and a member of the Division of Hospital Medicine since 2009. She currently serves as the Director of Caring Wisely at UCSF Health where she focuses her efforts in redesigning and innovating systems of care at UCSF Health to improve quality, safety, value, and the patient experience.
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Catherine is also the Co-Director for Health Systems Improvement in the Clinical Microsystems Clerkship in the UCSF School of Medicine where she co-leads an experiential curricula for pre-clinical medical students to gain meaningful experiences in health systems improvement and A3 problem solving. Catherine serves as a UCSF School of Medicine Bridges curriculum coach, where she closely works with medical students in teaching them systems improvement skills, clinical reasoning, the patient interview, and the hypothesis-driven physical exam, while assisting them with career exploration advice. Lastly, Catherine currently serves as the Director for Recruitment and Hiring for the Division of Hospital Medicine that now has over 100 academic and clinical faculty.
Catherine obtained her undergraduate degree with departmental honors from Stanford University in 2002 and received her M.D. at New York University in 2006, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and was awarded the AMWA Glasgow-Rubin Award for Excellence in Academics and Professionalism. She completed her medical residency training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, MA before joining the Division of Hospital Medicine at UCSF in August 2009.
Catherine is the former medical director of the Nighttime Hospitalist Service, former Director for Patient Safety and Quality in the Department of Neurological Surgery, and former Director for Quality and Safety in the Division of Hospital Medicine.
Education & Training
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- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training University of California 2018
- Medicine Intern and Resident Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center 06/2009
- M.D. School of Medicine New York University 2006
- B.S. Biological Sciences Stanford University 06/2002
Websites
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- UCSF Caring Wisely Website (healthvalue.ucsf.edu)
- Bridges Coaching Program Website (meded.ucsf.edu)
- DHM Quality and Safety Website (ucsfhealthhospitalmedicine.ucsf.edu)
- Clinical Microsystems Clerkship Website (meded.ucsf.edu)
- Clinical Profile at UCSF Medical Center (ucsfhealth.org)
Publications (19)
Top publication keywords:
Academic Medical CentersPatient Education as TopicPatient ReadmissionPrescription DrugsVideo RecordingOrganizational CultureHealth CommunicationNeurosurgeryPatient SafetySafety ManagementOperating RoomsPerioperative CarePatient SatisfactionChecklistNeurosurgical Procedures
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The Development and Implementation of the Fast-Pace Assessment Framework and Tiered Analgesic Orders for Opioid Optimization.
Pain management nursing : official journal of the American Society of Pain Management Nurses 2024 Bazinski M, Lau C, Clemons B, Purser L, Kangwankij A, Ngo L, Lang M, Besen B, Gross K, Borucki A, Behrends M, Miaskowski C, Schell-Chaple H -
A big leap in prescription drug promotion in Canada.
Journal of pharmacy & pharmaceutical sciences : a publication of the Canadian Society for Pharmaceutical Sciences, Societe canadienne des sciences pharmaceutiques 2024 Lau CY -
A behavioral intervention to promote use of multimodal pain medication for hospitalized patients: A randomized controlled trial.
Journal of hospital medicine 2023 Bongiovanni T, Pletcher MJ, Lau C, Robinson A, Lancaster E, Zhang L, Behrends M, Wick E, Auerbach A -
Outcomes Following Implementation of a Hospital-Wide, Multicomponent Delirium Care Pathway.
Journal of hospital medicine 2021 LaHue SC, Maselli J, Rogers S, Casatta J, Chao J, Croci R, Gonzales R, Holt B, Josephson SA, Lama S, Lau C, McCulloch C, Newman JC, Terrelonge M, Yeager J, Douglas VC -
Evaluation of a novel metric for personalized opioid prescribing after hospitalization.
PloS one 2020 Iverson NR, Lau CY, Abe-Jones Y, Fang MC, Kangelaris KN, Prasad P, Shah SJ, Najafi N
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UC Care Check-A Postoperative Neurosurgery Operating Room Checklist: An Interrupted Time Series Study.
Journal for healthcare quality : official publication of the National Association for Healthcare Quality 2020 Lau CY, Seymann G, Imershein S, Amin A, Afsarmanesh N, Uppington J, Aledia A, Pretanvil S, Wilson B, Wong J, Varma J, Boggan J, Hsu FPK, Carter B, Berger M, Harrison JD -
The Impact of Unmet Communication and Education Needs on Neurosurgical Patient and Caregiver Experiences of Care: A Qualitative Exploratory Analysis.
World neurosurgery 2018 Harrison JD, Seymann G, Imershein S, Amin A, Afsarmanesh N, Uppington J, Aledia A, Pretanvil S, Wilson B, Wong J, Varma J, Boggan J, Hsu FPK, Carter B, Martin N, Berger M, Lau CY -
Changing Operating Room Culture: Implementation of a Postoperative Debrief and Improved Safety Culture.
World neurosurgery 2017 Magill ST, Wang DD, Rutledge WC, Lau D, Berger MS, Sankaran S, Lau CY, Imershein SG -
Caring Wisely: A Program to Support Frontline Clinicians and Staff in Improving Healthcare Delivery and Reducing Costs.
Journal of hospital medicine 2017 Gonzales R, Moriates C, Lau C, Valencia V, Imershein S, Rajkomar A, Prasad P, Boscardin C, Grady D, Johnston S -
Resident-led Implementation of a Standardized Handoff System to Facilitate Transfer of Postoperative Neurosurgical Patients to the ICU.
Cureus 2016 Birk HS, Han SJ, Rolston JD, Rowland NC, Lau C, Theodosopoulos PV, McDermott MW -
Preventing Delays in First-Case Starts on the Neurosurgery Service: A Resident-Led Initiative at an Academic Institution.
Journal of surgical education 2016 Han SJ, Rolston JD, Zygourakis CC, Sun MZ, McDermott MW, Lau CY, Aghi MK -
Quality improvement tools and processes.
Neurosurgery clinics of North America 2015 Lau CY -
Improving patient safety in neurologic surgery.
Neurosurgery clinics of North America 2014 Han SJ, Rolston JD, Lau CY, Berger MS -
Medical errors in neurosurgery.
Surgical neurology international 2014 Rolston JD, Zygourakis CC, Han SJ, Lau CY, Berger MS, Parsa AT -
Changing our culture to advance patient safety: the 2013 AANS Presidential Address.
Journal of neurosurgery 2013 Berger MS, Wachter RM, Greysen SR, Lau CY -
Frequency and predictors of complications in neurological surgery: national trends from 2006 to 2011.
Journal of neurosurgery 2013 Rolston JD, Han SJ, Lau CY, Berger MS, Parsa AT -
Targeted reduction in neurosurgical laboratory utilization: resident-led effort at a single academic institution.
Journal of neurosurgery 2013 Han SJ, Saigal R, Rolston JD, Cheng JS, Lau CY, Mistry RI, McDermott MW, Berger MS -
Creating a culture of safety within operative neurosurgery: the design and implementation of a perioperative safety video.
Neurosurgical focus 2012 Lau CY, Greysen SR, Mistry RI, Han SJ, Mummaneni PV, Berger MS -
Effects of increased overnight supervision on resident education, decision-making, and autonomy.
Journal of hospital medicine 2012 Haber LA, Lau CY, Sharpe BA, Arora VM, Farnan JM, Ranji SR