James Brown, MD
Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine
Dr. Brown obtained his internal medicine and pulmonary training at Johns Hopkins University and UCSF. Beginning in 1981, he served as Assistant or Acting (2002-2004) Chief of Pulmonary, Critical, and Sleep Medicine at the San Francisco VA Medical Center.
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He was chief of outpatient pulmonary clinics and the pulmonary function laboratory at the VA until 2017 and founded and directed the Sleep Medicine Program until Dr. Sarmiento’s arrival here the same year. He also founded and continues to direct the Lung Cancer Screening Program at the VA. He has had a strong interest in internal medicine resident education and directed a rotation for UCSF medical residents in the chest clinic at the VA from 1995 to 2017. He was VA site director for the UCSF pulmonary fellowship program from 2004 until 2018. He continues to serve as an attending physician on the inpatient pulmonary rotation, chest clinic, and ICU at the VA. He also oversees a weekly Wednesday noon-hour pulmonary clinical conference at the VA and is a member of Dr. Meshell Johnson's Health Equity Council. He has chaired the UCSF Department of Medicine’s Clinical X Search Committee since 2013.
From 1979 to 2006, Dr. Brown directed a research program focused on regulation of contractile responses, remodeling, and growth of airway smooth muscle cells. More recently, his research has related to implementation of lung cancer screening using low-dose chest CT scans in the VA. He has served as Chair, VA Subcommittee, of American Thoracic Society’s Research Advocacy Committee since 2009. In this role, he advocates for the the VA’s Research and Development Program particularly in areas of improving the research laboratory infrastructure, strengthening the VA Research Career Development Award Program, increasing the visibility of VA-focused sessions at ATS International Conferences, and finding ways to expand access to and effectiveness of lung cancer screening using low-dose chest CT scans in Veterans. He now serves as Chair of ATS’s Research Advocacy Committee. This committee works collaboratively with the National Institutes of Health, the Veterans Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to advance research in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. He is editor of the ATS's Research News Quarterly.
Awards
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- Outstanding Clinician Award, California Thoracic Society, 2015
- Member, Council of Master Clinicians, UCSF Department of Medicine, 2012
- Excellence in Outpatient Teaching Award, UCSF VAMC PRIME Program, 2011
- Annual Faculty Teaching Award, UCSF Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship Program, 2003
- Excellence in Outpatient Teaching Award, UCSF VAMC PRIME Program, 1997
- Western Association of Physicians, University of California, San Francisco, 1995
- Visiting Professor, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1989
- Western Society for Clinical Investigation, University of California, San Francisco, 1985
- Parker B. Francis Fellowship, University of California, San Francisco, 1979-1981
Education & Training
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- Clinical Instructor, Assistant Research Scientist Pulmonary research University of California and Cardiovascular Research Institute 06/1981
- Fellow Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine University of California 06/1979
- Chief Medical Resident Internal Medicine University of California Medical Center 06/1976
- R3 Internal Medicine University of California 06/1975
- R1 and R2 Internal Medicine Johns Hopkins Hospital 06/1974
- MD Medicine Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 06/1972
- BA Pre-Med, History Yale University 06/1968
Grants and Projects
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- VA Lung Precision Oncology Program, VA Research and Development and VA Cooperative Studies Programs, Sunny Wang and Jim Brown, co-PI's, 2021-2026
- Circulating Tumor DNA for Risk Stratification in Lung Cancer Screening, Guardant Health, Inc.: PI: Mehrdad Arjomandi, 2017-2022
- CONNECT:Smoking Cessation and Lung Cancer Screening, UC Tobacco-Related Disease Research Award. PI: Judith Walsh, 2018-2021
Publications (9)
Top publication keywords:
Solitary Pulmonary NoduleChymasesTracheaLife ExpectancyPhosphatidylinositol 3-KinasesSerine EndopeptidasesPhosphotyrosineFactor XIITryptasesReceptor, PAR-2Muscle, SmoothAntigen-Antibody ComplexLung NeoplasmsMitogensMultiple Pulmonary Nodules
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National Survey of Lung Cancer Screening Practices in Veterans Health Administration Facilities.
American journal of preventive medicine 2023 Núñez ER, Slatore CG, Tanner NT, Melzer AC, Crothers KA, Lewis JA, Fabbrini AE, Brown JK, Wiener RS -
National Survey of Current Lung Cancer Screening Program Models and Practices in Veterans Health Administration Facilities
American Journal of Preventive Medicine 2023 Núñez ER, Slatore CG, Tanner NT, MD, Melzer AC, Crothers K, Lewis JA, Fabbrini A, Brown JK, Wiener RS. -
Update on Veterans Health Administration’s New Program for Lung Cancer Research and Care
American Thoracic Society’s Research News Quarterly 2023 Brown, J. K, Klein, M. -
Lung Cancer Screening Among U.S. Military Veterans by Health Status and Race and Ethnicity, 2017-2020: A Cross-Sectional Population-Based Study.
AJPM focus 2023 Rustagi AS, Byers AL, Brown JK, Purcell N, Slatore CG, Keyhani S -
Lung cancer screening among U. S. Veterans by health status and race and ethnicity. 2017-2020: a cross-sectional population-based study
American Journal of Preventive Medicine Focus 2023 Alison S. Rustagi, Amy L. Byers, James K. Brown, Natalie Purcell, Christopher G. Slatore, and Salomeh Keyhani.
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Development and Validation of a Risk Assessment Model for Pulmonary Nodules Using Plasma Proteins and Clinical Factors.
Chest 2022 Vachani A, Lam S, Massion PP, Brown JK, Beggs M, Fish AL, Carbonell L, Wang SX, Mazzone PJ -
Age, comorbidity, life expectancy, and pulmonary nodule follow-up in older veterans.
PloS one 2018 Wong ML, Shi Y, Fung KZ, Ngo S, Elicker BM, Brown JK, Hiatt RA, Tang VL, Walter LC -
Tryptase activates phosphatidylinositol 3-kinases proteolytically independently from proteinase-activated receptor-2 in cultured dog airway smooth muscle cells.
American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology 2005 Brown JK, Hollenberg MD, Jones CA -
Tryptase's potent mitogenic effects in human airway smooth muscle cells are via nonproteolytic actions.
American journal of physiology. Lung cellular and molecular physiology 2002 Brown JK, Jones CA, Rooney LA, Caughey GH, Hall IP