Louise Aronson, MD
Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

A graduate of Harvard Medical School, Dr. Aronson has received the Gold Professorship in Humanism in Medicine, the California Homecare Physician of the Year award, and the American Geriatrics Society Clinician-Teacher of the Year award. Her current work is focused on expanding geriatric care and public perceptions of old age to more accurately attend to the decades and diversity of elderhood, developing innovative programs and practices to empower older adults to retain agency and maximize wellness as they age. At UCSF, Louise has served as director of the Pathways to Discovery program, the Northern California Geriatrics Education Center, the Optimizing Aging Project, and as Chief of Geriatrics Education. Her writing credits include the New York Times, Atlantic, Washington Post, Discover, Vox, JAMA, Lancet, and the New England Journal of Medicine, and she has been featured on TODAY, CBS This Morning, NPR’s Fresh Air, Morning Edition, Politico, Kaiser Health News, Tech Nation and the New Yorker. Currently, Dr. Aronson divides her time among patient care, community-based aging innovations, teaching, health advocacy in the media, and writing.

• Introducing Inside Story, a New Section for JAMA Internal Medicine.
  JAMA internal medicine 2023 Aronson L, Grady D, Inouye SK
• What could go wrong? Reflections and roadmap for successfully engaging with public media.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2023 Fohner AE, Whitson HE, Aronson L
• How Do We Know When Our Leaders Are Too Old?
  LA Times 2023
• Understanding Pandemic Experiences Among America's Elders.
  Health affairs (Project Hope) 2022 Aronson L, Kotwal A
• Covid-19: a call for mobilizing geriatric expertise.
  European geriatric medicine 2021 O'Hanlon S, Dhesi J, Aronson L, Inouye SK
• Recommendations for Welcoming Back Nursing Home Visitors During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Results of a Delphi Panel.
  Journal of the American Medical Directors Association 2020 Bergman C, Stall NM, Haimowitz D, Aronson L, Lynn J, Steinberg K, Wasserman M
• Walter L and Chang A. Lange Current Geriatrics
  Integrative Geriatrics and Cannabis Use 2020 Aronson L and Keyhani S
• Healthy Aging Across the Stages of Old Age.
  Clinics in geriatric medicine 2020 Aronson L
• Evidence, Efficacy, and Economics-A Better Path Forward for US Health Care.
  JAMA network open 2020 Aronson L
• Friedman, S. Clinics in Geriatrics Medicine
  Healthy Aging Across the Stages of Old Age 2020 Aronson L
• Beyond a Moment - Reckoning with Our History and Embracing Antiracism in Medicine.
  The New England journal of medicine 2020 Paul DW, Knight KR, Campbell A, Aronson L
• Story as Evidence, Evidence as Story.
  JAMA 2020 Aronson L
• Age, Complexity, and Crisis - A Prescription for Progress in Pandemic.
  The New England journal of medicine 2020 Aronson L
• Better Medical Care for the Elderly
  Saturday Evening Post 2020 Aronson L
• Ageism Is Making the Pandemic Worse
  The Atlantic 2020 Aronson L
• Coronavirus Reveals Just How Little Compassion We Have for Old People
  Vox 2020 Aronson L
• Covid19 Kills Only Old People. Only?
  New York Times 2020 Aronson L
• Bylander, J. Narrative Matters: Writing to Change the Healthcare System
  How health care fails older patients and how it can be done better 2020 Aronson L
• Act Three
  Harvard Medicine Magazine 2020 Aronson L
• We Can Help Men Live Longer
  New York Times 2019 Aronson L
• A Dire Diagnosis and Multiple Medications
  Discover magazine 2019 Aronson L
• Evaluation of a Medical Student Research and Career Development Program to Increase Diversity in Academic Medicine.
  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2019 Fernandez A, Chen V, Quan J, Martinez A, Flowers L, Aronson L
• Is a Person Ever Too Old to Be President?
  Washington Post 2019 Aronson L
• Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life
  Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life. 2019 Aronson L.
• Don't Ruin My Life - Aging and Driving in the 21st Century.
  The New England journal of medicine 2019 Aronson L
• NIH Needs to Make Clinical Research More Inclusive
  STAT 2019 Aronson L
• U.S. Hospitals Ignore Improving Eldercare. That's a Mistake
  STAT 2018 Aronson L
• Destroyed but Not Defeated
  Lancet 2018 Marchalik D, Aronson L.
• Necessary Violence
  New England Review 2017 Aronson L
• Stop Treating 70- and 90-Year Olds the Same
  New York Times Sunday Review 2017
• A Tale of Two Doctors - Structural Inequalities and the Culture of Medicine.
  The New England journal of medicine 2017 Aronson L
• Perspectives of low-income chronically ill patients on complex care management.
  Families, systems & health : the journal of collaborative family healthcare 2017 Mao AY, Willard-Grace R, Dubbin L, Aronson L, Fernandez A, Burke NJ, Finch J, Davis E
• Case-Based Suffering.
  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2017 Aronson L
• Don’t Discriminate Against Mutants Like Me
  New York Times 2017 Aronson L
• A PIECE OF MY MIND. Story as Evidence, Evidence as Story.
  JAMA 2015 Aronson L
• Chronic care management for Medicare patients--reply.
  JAMA 2015 Bautista CA, Covinsky K, Aronson L
• Essential steps in developing best practices to assess reflective skill: A comparison of two rubrics.
  Medical teacher 2015 Miller-Kuhlmann R, O'Sullivan PS, Aronson L
• The Medical System May Treat You Well But Less So After You Reach Age 80
  Washington Post 2015
• Necessary steps: how health care fails older patients, and how it can be done better.
  Health affairs (Project Hope) 2015 Aronson L
• Medicare and care coordination: expanding the clinician's toolbox.
  JAMA 2015 Aronson L, Bautista CA, Covinsky K
• The human lifecycle's neglected stepchild.
  Lancet (London, England) 2015 Aronson L
• Teaching geriatric fellows how to teach: a needs assessment targeting geriatrics fellowship program directors.
  Journal of the American Geriatrics Society 2014 Rivera V, Yukawa M, Aronson L, Widera E
• The Human Lifecycle's Neglected Stepchild
  Lancet 2014 Aronson L
• New Buildings for Older People
  New York Times 2014 Aronson L.
• Asking the right questions.
  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2014 Aronson L
• The future of robot caregivers
  New York Times 2014 Aronson L
• Lancet
  Examining empathy 2014 Aronson L.
• How do we tell the stories of medicine?
  Lancet (London, England) 2014 Aronson L
• Current Geriatric Diagnosis and Treatment
  Interprofessional Teams in Geriatrics. 2014 Rivera J, Reeves S, Aronson L
• Elder self-neglect--how can a physician help?
  The New England journal of medicine 2013 Smith AK, Lo B, Aronson L
• "Good" patients and "difficult" patients--rethinking our definitions.
  The New England journal of medicine 2013 Aronson L
• The value of medical education programmes: what are the right questions?
  Medical education 2013 Aronson L
• Weighing the end of life
  New York Times 2013 Aronson, L
• A History of the Present Illness
  A History of the Present Illness 2013 Aronson, L
• Bruinsma G and Weisburd D (Eds). Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice
  Aging in Correctional Populations: Through the Geriatrician's Lens. 2013 Williams B, Ahalt C and Aronson L.
• A comparison of two methods of teaching reflective ability in Year 3 medical students.
  Medical education 2012 Aronson L, Niehaus B, Hill-Sakurai L, Lai C, O'Sullivan PS
• J Am Geriatr Soc
  The UCSF Interprofessional Aging and Palliative Care Elective. 2012 Rivera J, Mackin L, Aronson L.
• The UCSF Faculty Development Workshop on Critical Reflection in Medical Education: Training Educators to Teach and Provide Feedback on Learners’ Reflections. MedEdPORTAL/9086
  The UCSF Faculty Development Workshop on Critical Reflection in Medical Education: Training Educators to Teach and Provide Feedback on Learners’ Reflections. MedEdPORTAL/9086. 2012 Aronson L, Kruidering M, O'Sullivan P.
• The UCSF LEaP: A Guide for Reflective Learning in Medical Education. MedEdPORTAL/9073
  The UCSF LEaP: A Guide for Reflective Learning in Medical Education. MedEdPORTAL/9073. 2012 Aronson L, Niehaus B, Kruidering M, O’Sullivan P.
• Pressure ulcers in long-term care.
  Clinics in geriatric medicine 2011 White-Chu EF, Flock P, Struck B, Aronson L
• Development and pilot testing of a reflective learning guide for medical education.
  Medical teacher 2011 Aronson L, Niehaus B, Lindow J, Robertson PA, O'Sullivan PS
• Do writing and storytelling skill influence assessment of reflective ability in medical students' written reflections?
  Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2010 Aronson L, Niehaus B, DeVries CD, Siegel JR, O'Sullivan PS
• Twelve tips for teaching reflection at all levels of medical education.
  Medical teacher 2010 Aronson L
• MedEdPORTAL
  Reflective Ability Rubric and User Guide 2010 OSullivan P; Aronson L; Chittenden E; Niehaus B; Learman L
• Why geriatrics?
  Annals of internal medicine 2010 Aronson L
• A faculty development workshop in teaching reflection.
  Medical education 2009 Aronson L, Chittenden E, O'Sullivan P
• Journal of Aging, Humanities and the Arts
  The Ethics of Everyday Life 2009 Aronson L
• Osler’s Bedside Library: Great Literature from a Great Physician. LaCombe M (Ed.)
  Osler, Plutarch and the Intimate Observation of Human Behavior 2009 Aronson L
• Medical linguistics.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2007 Aronson L
• BARK
  A New Breed of Magic: Canine Assistance in Alzheimer’s Care 2000 Aronson L
• San Francisco Chronicle
  A City Full of the Hidden Homebound 1999 Aronson L
• San Francisco Chronicle
  The Fear of Losing Who We Are. 1999 Aronson L
• Examining older people for carotid bruits: listen to your patient, not her neck.
  Journal of general internal medicine 1998 Aronson L, Landefeld CS
• Refugee intermediaries and the delivery of health care to Cambodian refugees
  Practicing Anthropology 1987 Aronson L
• Traditional Cambodian health beliefs and practices
  Rhode Island Medical Journal 1987 Aronson L