Robert Harrison, MD, MPH
Sr.Physician Diplomate
Medicine
School of Medicine
Dr. Robert Harrison joined UCSF in 1984. He founded and directed UCSF Occupational Health Services for more than 15 years, and now is a senior attending physician. He has diagnosed and treated thousands of patients with work- and environmental-induced diseases and injuries. He also directs the worker tracking and investigation program for the California Department of Public Health.
Show full bio (70 words) Hide full bio
Dr. Harrison received his B.A. from the University of Rochester and his M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is board certified in both internal medicine and occupational medicine. He has served on the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration (Cal/OSHA) Standards Board, and authored numerous publications in the area of occupational medicine. He is a clinical professor of medicine at UCSF.
Education & Training
Show all (4) Hide
- Residency Occupational Medicine University of California, San Francisco 1984
- MPH Public health University of California, Berkeley 1983
- Residency Internal Medicine University of California, San Francisco 1982
- M.D. Medicine Albert Einstein College of Medicine 1979
Interests
Show all (2) Hide
- Tracking of occupational diseases
- diagnosis and treatment of workplace injuries and illnesses
Websites
Show all (1) Hide
- UCSF Occupational Medicine program (oem.ucsf.edu)
Grants and Projects
Show all (3) Hide
Publications (43)
Top publication keywords:
Occupational ExposureWomen, WorkingOccupational MedicineMusculoskeletal DiseasesFirefightersHeat Stress DisordersWorkplace ViolenceOil and Gas IndustryMoving and Lifting PatientsHydrocarbonsSilicosisOccupational DiseasesWorkers' CompensationEnvironmental MedicinePersonnel Selection
-
Respiratory Injuries among California Career Firefighters, 2000-2019.
Annals of the American Thoracic Society 2025 Murray M, Blanc P, Kales SN, Balmes J, Frederick M, Cummings KJ, Harrison R, Gandhi S -
Silicosis Surveillance in California, 2019-2024: Tracking an Epidemic.
American journal of public health 2025 Flattery J, Woolsey C, Fazio JC, Gandhi SA, Heinzerling A, Harrison RJ, Cummings KJ -
WOEMA Position Paper and Call-to-Action: California Needs More Physicians Specializing in Occupational and Environmental Medicine (OEM).
Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 2025 Sharip A, Papanek PJ, Conlon C, Gean CJ, Khan A, Harrison R, Berenji M -
Recruitment Challenges for Physician Training in Occupational and Environmental Medicine.
Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 2025 Blumberg MJ, Harrison RJ -
Heat-Related Illness in California Firefighters, 2001-2020.
American journal of industrial medicine 2024 Murray M, Beckman S, Heinzerling A, Frederick M, Cummings KJ, Gandhi S, Harrison R
Show all (38 more) Hide
-
Workers at Risk of Silicosis-Ongoing Overexposure and Lack of Medical Surveillance-Reply.
JAMA internal medicine 2024 Fazio JC, Gandhi SA, Harrison RJ -
Notes from the Field: Surveillance of Silicosis Using Electronic Case Reporting - California, December 2022-July 2023.
MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report 2023 Flattery J, Woolsey C, Epstein-Corbin M, Blackley DJ, Harrison RJ, Cummings KJ -
Direct Determination of Optimal Real-Space Orbitals for Correlated Electronic Structure of Molecules.
Journal of chemical theory and computation 2023 Valeev EF, Harrison RJ, Holmes AA, Peterson CC, Penchoff DA -
Silicosis Among Immigrant Engineered Stone (Quartz) Countertop Fabrication Workers in California.
JAMA internal medicine 2023 Fazio JC, Gandhi SA, Flattery J, Heinzerling A, Kamangar N, Afif N, Cummings KJ, Harrison RJ -
Active Surveillance of Engineered Stone Workers Facilitates Early Identification of Silicosis: A Discussion of Surveillance of Occupational Lung Diseases.
New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS 2023 Gandhi SA, Heinzerling A, Flattery J, Fazio JC, Alam A, Cummings KJ, Harrison RJ -
Rare case of occupational pulmonary hemorrhage in a firefighter.
Respiratory medicine case reports 2022 Gandhi SA, Welch TJ, Jones KD, Cummings KJ, Styles L, Blanc PD, Harrison RJ -
Safe patient handling legislation and musculoskeletal disorders among California healthcare workers: Analysis of workers' compensation data, 2007-2016.
American journal of industrial medicine 2022 Lee SJ, Lee JH, Harrison R -
Differences in Hospitals' Workplace Violence Incident Reporting Practices: A Mixed Methods Study.
Policy, politics & nursing practice 2022 Odes R, Chapman S, Ackerman S, Harrison R, Hong O -
Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Among Firefighters/Paramedics in San Francisco, CA.
Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 2021 Grant M, Harrison R, Nuñez A, Kurtz T, Phelps S, Brokaw J, Shusterman D -
Development of a Data Visualization Tool for Occupational Exposure to Chemicals of Concern for Breast Cancer Among California Working Women, 2010-2014.
New solutions : a journal of environmental and occupational health policy : NS 2021 Beckman S, Silver E, Weinberg JL, Hurley S, Frederick M, Chan J, Reynolds P, Harrison R -
Excess mortality associated with the COVID-19 pandemic among Californians 18-65 years of age, by occupational sector and occupation: March through November 2020.
PloS one 2021 Chen YH, Glymour M, Riley A, Balmes J, Duchowny K, Harrison R, Matthay E, Bibbins-Domingo K -
Assessment of Methylene Chloride-Related Fatalities in the United States, 1980-2018.
JAMA internal medicine 2021 Hoang A, Fagan K, Cannon DL, Rayasam SDG, Harrison R, Shusterman D, Singla V -
Protecting Olympic Participants from Covid-19 - The Urgent Need for a Risk-Management Approach.
The New England journal of medicine 2021 Sparrow AK, Brosseau LM, Harrison RJ, Osterholm MT -
From NWChem to NWChemEx: Evolving with the Computational Chemistry Landscape.
Chemical reviews 2021 Kowalski K, Bair R, Bauman NP, Boschen JS, Bylaska EJ, Daily J, de Jong WA, Dunning T, Govind N, Harrison RJ, Keçeli M, Keipert K, Krishnamoorthy S, Kumar S, Mutlu E, Palmer B, Panyala A, Peng B, … -
Frequency of violence towards healthcare workers in the United States' inpatient psychiatric hospitals: A systematic review of literature.
International journal of mental health nursing 2020 Odes R, Chapman S, Harrison R, Ackerman S, Hong O -
Solvent-based paint and varnish removers: a focused toxicologic review of existing and alternative constituents.
Journal of applied toxicology : JAT 2020 Durrani T, Clapp R, Harrison R, Shusterman D -
Factors associated with physical injury or police involvement during incidents of workplace violence in hospitals: Findings from the first year of California's new standard.
American journal of industrial medicine 2020 Odes R, Hong O, Harrison R, Chapman S -
Impact of California's safe patient handling legislation on musculoskeletal injury prevention among nurses.
American journal of industrial medicine 2018 Lee SJ, Lee JH, Harrison R -
Perspective: Computational chemistry software and its advancement as illustrated through three grand challenge cases for molecular science.
The Journal of chemical physics 2018 Krylov A, Windus TL, Barnes T, Marin-Rimoldi E, Nash JA, Pritchard B, Smith DGA, Altarawy D, Saxe P, Clementi C, Crawford TD, Harrison RJ, Jha S, Pande VS, Head-Gordon T -
Structural Characteristics, Population Analysis, and Binding Energies of [An(NO3)]2+ (with An = Ac to Lr).
ACS omega 2018 Penchoff DA, Peterson CC, Quint MS, Auxier JD, Schweitzer GK, Jenkins DM, Harrison RJ, Hall HL -
Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Emergency Department Visits Associated With Wildfire Smoke Exposure in California in 2015.
Journal of the American Heart Association 2018 Wettstein ZS, Hoshiko S, Fahimi J, Harrison RJ, Cascio WE, Rappold AG -
Ligand-induced dependence of charge transfer in nanotube-quantum dot heterostructures.
Nanoscale 2016 Wang L, Han J, Sundahl B, Thornton S, Zhu Y, Zhou R, Jaye C, Liu H, Li ZQ, Taylor GT, Fischer DA, Appenzeller J, Harrison RJ, Wong SS -
Occupational HIV Transmission Among Male Adult Film Performers - Multiple States, 2014.
MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report 2016 Wilken JA, Ried C, Rickett P, Arno JN, Mendez Y, Harrison RJ, Wohlfeiler D, Bauer HM, Joyce MP, Switzer WM, Heneine W, Shankar A, Mark KE -
Sudden Deaths Among Oil and Gas Extraction Workers Resulting from Oxygen Deficiency and Inhalation of Hydrocarbon Gases and Vapors - United States, January 2010-March 2015.
MMWR. Morbidity and mortality weekly report 2016 Harrison RJ, Retzer K, Kosnett MJ, Hodgson M, Jordan T, Ridl S, Kiefer M -
Isocyanates and work-related asthma: Findings from California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey, 1993-2008.
American journal of industrial medicine 2015 Lefkowitz D, Pechter E, Fitzsimmons K, Lumia M, Stephens AC, Davis L, Flattery J, Weinberg J, Harrison RJ, Reilly MJ, Filios MS, White GE, Rosenman KD -
Erratum to "acute symptoms associated with chemical exposures and safe work practices among hospital and campus cleaning workers: a pilot study".
American journal of industrial medicine 2015 Lee SJ, Nam B, Harrison R, Hong O -
The CDC/Council of state and territorial epidemiologists applied epidemiology fellowship program: evaluation of the first 9 years.
American journal of preventive medicine 2014 Dick VR, Masters AE, McConnon PJ, Engel JP, Underwood VN, Harrison RJ -
Acute symptoms associated with chemical exposures and safe work practices among hospital and campus cleaning workers: a pilot study.
American journal of industrial medicine 2014 Lee SJ, Nam B, Harrison R, Hong O -
Gender differences in work-related asthma: surveillance data from California, Massachusetts, Michigan, and New Jersey, 1993-2008.
The Journal of asthma : official journal of the Association for the Care of Asthma 2014 White GE, Seaman C, Filios MS, Mazurek JM, Flattery J, Harrison RJ, Reilly MJ, Rosenman KD, Lumia ME, Stephens AC, Pechter E, Fitzsimmons K, Davis LK -
Fatalities due to dichloromethane in paint strippers: a continuing problem.
American journal of industrial medicine 2013 Macisaac J, Harrison R, Krishnaswami J, McNary J, Suchard J, Boysen-Osborn M, Cierpich H, Styles L, Shusterman D -
Influenza vaccination among health care personnel in California: 2010-2011 influenza season.
American journal of infection control 2013 Lee SJ, Harrison R, Rosenberg J, McLendon P, Boston E, Lindley MC -
Follow-up of neck and shoulder pain among sewing machine operators: The Los Angeles garment study.
American journal of industrial medicine 2010 Wang PC, Harrison RJ, Yu F, Rempel DM, Ritz BR -
Self-reported pain and physical signs for musculoskeletal disorders in the upper body region among Los Angeles garment workers.
Work (Reading, Mass.) 2009 Wang PC, Rempel DM, Hurwitz EL, Harrison RJ, Janowitz I, Ritz BR -
A randomized controlled trial of chair interventions on back and hip pain among sewing machine operators: the los angeles garment study.
Journal of occupational and environmental medicine 2008 Wang PC, Ritz BR, Janowitz I, Harrison RJ, Yu F, Chan J, Rempel DM -
A randomized controlled trial evaluating the effects of new task chairs on shoulder and neck pain among sewing machine operators: the Los Angeles garment study.
Spine 2007 Rempel DM, Wang PC, Janowitz I, Harrison RJ, Yu F, Ritz BR -
FIOH-sponsored newsletter misrepresents asbestos hazards in Zimbabwe.
International journal of occupational and environmental health 2006 Bailar JC, Ballal SG, Boback M, Castleman B, Chee HL, Cherniack M, Christiani D, Cicolella A, Fernández de D'Pool J, Egilman D, Frank AL, Garcia MA, Giannasi F, Greenberg M, Harrison RJ, Huff J, … -
Garment workers in California: health outcomes of the Asian Immigrant Women Workers Clinic.
AAOHN journal : official journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses 2004 Burgel BJ, Lashuay N, Israel L, Harrison R -
Processes of care for individuals with work related asthma: treatment characteristics and impact of asthma on work.
AAOHN journal : official journal of the American Association of Occupational Health Nurses 2004 Roberts JL, Janson S, Gillen M, Flattery J, Harrison R