Sarah Patterson, MD
Assistant Professor
Medicine
School of Medicine

She continued her training at UCSF by completing an Internal Medicine residency, rheumatology fellowship, and postdoctoral research fellowship in Integrative Health. She joined the UCSF Rheumatology Division faculty in 2019 and became a UCSF Osher Center core research faculty member in 2022.

Dr. Patterson’s research aims to advance the understanding and management of rheumatic diseases by determining the impact of lifestyle factors—including physical activity, nutrition, and stress management—on disease outcomes. She has completed multiple studies investigating the effects of stress, stress resilience, and physical activity on inflammatory pathways and clinical outcomes in people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). She is the principle investigator for a pilot study testing the feasibility and acceptability of a mindfulness-based intervention for people living with RA. She is committed to translating her research into improvements in patient-centered rheumatology care, and to that end her work also examines effective applications of integrative health approaches in rheumatology.

In her clinical work, Dr. Patterson specializes in SLE and combining evidence-based integrative health approaches with standard of care disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). She established one of the first university-based integrative rheumatology clinics, which is based at the UCSF Osher Center. She provides direct patient care in the UCSF Lupus Clinic, the UCSF Osher Center Clinic, and in the UCSF hospital when she is attending on the inpatient rheumatology consult service.

• Clinical and biological heterogeneity of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults following SARS-CoV-2 infection: a case series.
  Frontiers in medicine 2023 Barth KE, Spottiswoode N, Hurabielle C, Subbaraj L, COMET Consortium, Calfee CS, Matthay MA, French S, Connolly A, Hewitt SM, Vannella KM, Barnett C, Langelier CR, Patterson S
• 2022 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for Exercise, Rehabilitation, Diet, and Additional Integrative Interventions for Rheumatoid Arthritis.
  Arthritis care & research 2023 England BR, Smith BJ, Baker NA, Barton JL, Oatis CA, Guyatt G, Anandarajah A, Carandang K, Chan KK, Constien D, Davidson E, Dodge CV, Bemis-Dougherty A, Everett S, Fisher N, Fraenkel L, Goodman SM, …
• Perceived Stress and Prediction of Worse Disease Activity and Symptoms in a Multiracial, Multiethnic Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Cohort.
  Arthritis care & research 2023 Patterson S, Trupin L, Hartogensis W, DeQuattro K, Lanata C, Gordon C, Barbour KE, Greenlund KJ, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J, Katz P
• Physical Activity Associates With Lower Systemic Inflammatory Gene Expression in Rheumatoid Arthritis.
  The Journal of rheumatology 2022 Patterson SL, Sun S, Rychkov D, Katz P, Tsitsiklis A, Nakamura MC, Serpa PH, Langelier CR, Sirota M
• Physical Inactivity and Incident Depression in a Multiracial, Multiethnic Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Cohort.
  Arthritis care & research 2022 Patterson SL, Trupin L, Yazdany J, Dall'Era M, Lanata C, Dequattro K, Hartogensis W, Katz P
• Increased rates of secondary bacterial infections, including Enterococcus bacteremia, in patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).
  Infection control and hospital epidemiology 2021 DeVoe C, Segal MR, Wang L, Stanley K, Madera S, Fan J, Schouest J, Graham-Ojo R, Nichols A, Prasad PA, Ghale R, Love C, Abe-Jones Y, Kangelaris KN, Patterson SL, Yokoe DS, Langelier CR
• Measures of Psychosocial Stress and Stressful Exposures.
  Arthritis care & research 2020 Patterson SL, Sagui-Henson S, Prather AA
• Gaps in Ambulatory Patient Safety for Immunosuppressive Specialty Medications.
  Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety 2019 Patterson S, Schmajuk G, Evans M, Aggarwal I, Izadi Z, Gianfrancesco M, Yazdany J
• Obesity is Independently Associated With Worse Patient-Reported Outcomes in Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
  Arthritis care & research 2019 Patterson SL, Schmajuk G, Jafri K, Yazdany J, Katz P
• Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) prophylaxis patterns among patients with rheumatic diseases receiving high-risk immunosuppressant drugs.
  Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism 2018 Schmajuk G, Jafri K, Evans M, Shiboski S, Gianfrancesco M, Izadi Z, Patterson SL, Aggarwal I, Sarkar U, Dudley RA, Yazdany J
• A Young Woman With Sudden Urinary Retention and Sensory Deficits.
  Arthritis care & research 2018 Patterson SL, Jafri K, Narvid JA, Margaretten M
• Discordance of the Framingham cardiovascular risk score and the 2013 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association risk score in systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.
  Clinical rheumatology 2017 Jafri K, Ogdie A, Qasim A, Patterson SL, Gianfrancesco M, Izadi Z, Katz P, Yazdany J, Schmajuk G
• Neuromyelitis Optica.
  Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America 2017 Patterson SL, Goglin SE
• Central Nervous System Manifestations of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.
  Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America 2017 Jafri K, Patterson SL, Lanata C
• Antimalarial myopathy in a systemic lupus erythematosus patient with quadriparesis and seizures: a case-based review.
  Clinical rheumatology 2017 Jafri K, Zahed H, Wysham KD, Patterson S, Nolan AL, Bucknor MD, Chaganti RK
• Cortisol patterns are associated with T cell activation in HIV.
  PloS one 2013 Patterson S, Moran P, Epel E, Sinclair E, Kemeny ME, Deeks SG, Bacchetti P, Acree M, Epling L, Kirschbaum C, Hecht FM
• When Is "Pseudo-Ludwig's Angina" Associated With Coagulopathy Also a "Pseudo" Hemorrhage?
  Journal of investigative medicine high impact case reports 2013 Lovallo E, Patterson S, Erickson M, Chin C, Blanc P, Durrani TS