Vanja Douglas, MD
Professor
Neurology
School of Medicine

Vanja spends most of his time seeing patients on the inpatient neurology consult and primary services at UCSF Health, is actively involved in teaching medical students and residents, and has won several teaching awards including the Henry J. Kaiser Award for Excellence in Teaching. Vanja directed the neurology clinical clerkship from 2011 to 2018, was Associate Program Director for the UCSF adult neurology residency from 2018-2024, and became Program Director of the adult neurology residency in 2024.

Vanja's research interests are in how systems of care impact quality for neurology inpatients and in the prediction, prevention, and management of delirium. He helped develop of a comprehensive delirium care program at UCSF Health.

• Characteristics, Complications, and Outcomes of Critical Illness in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease. (P4-15.002).
  Neurology 2024 Ori Lieberman, Vanja Douglas, Sara LaHue
• ACCELERATED BIOLOGICAL AGE IS ASSOCIATED WITH DELIRIUM AND PLASMA NEUROFILAMENT LIGHT IN GERIATRIC HIP FRACTURE.
  Innovation in Aging 2023 Sara LaHue, Joy Youn, Matias Fuentealba, Vanja Douglas, David Furman, Julio Rojas, Lawren VandeVrede, John Newman
• Fluorescein Angiography Findings in Susac Syndrome: A Multicenter Retrospective Case Series.
  Journal of neuro-ophthalmology : the official journal of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society 2023 Cohen DA, Tajfirouz D, Vodopivec I, Kyle K, Bouffard MA, Bhattacharyya S, Douglas VC, Rasool N, Bhatti MT, McKeon A, Pittock S, Flanagan EP, Prasad S, Nagagopal V, Egan RA, Chen JJ, Chwalisz BK
• Reexamining cholinesterase inhibitors for the prevention and treatment of delirium in high-risk populations.
  Critical care (London, England) 2023 Lieberman OJ, Douglas VC, LaHue SC
• Variant Sciatic Nerve Anatomy in Relation to the Piriformis Muscle on Magnetic Resonance Neurography: A Potential Etiology for Extraspinal Sciatica.
  Tomography (Ann Arbor, Mich.) 2023 Bharadwaj UU, Varenika V, Carson W, Villanueva-Meyer J, Ammanuel S, Bucknor M, Robbins NM, Douglas V, Chin CT
• Spinal epidural arteriovenous fistula with nerve root enhancement mimicking myeloradiculitis: a case report.
  BMC neurology 2023 Chiang S, Pet DB, Talbott JF, LaHue SC, Douglas VC, Rosendale N
• Predisposing and Precipitating Factors Associated With Delirium: A Systematic Review.
  JAMA network open 2023 Ormseth CH, LaHue SC, Oldham MA, Josephson SA, Whitaker E, Douglas VC
• Potential for remote vital sign monitoring to improve hospital patient sleep: A feasibility study.
  International journal of medical informatics 2022 Beaman H, Douglas VC, Patel K, John Boscardin W, Youn J, LaHue SC
• Detection of Neoplasms by Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing of Cerebrospinal Fluid (S27.004).
  Neurology 2022 Wei Gu, Andreas Rauschecker, Elaine Hsu, Kelsey Zorn, Yasemin Sucu, Scot Federman, Shaun Arevalo, Hannah Sample, Eric Nguyen, Eric Talevich, Bardia Nourbakhsh, Carl Gold, Bruce Cree, Vanja Douglas, …
• REM-Sleep: Remote Monitoring for Sleep Promotion (P11-7.004).
  Neurology 2022 Hannah Beaman, Vanja Douglas, Sara LaHue
• COVID-19 severity and age increase the odds of delirium in hospitalized adults with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection: a cohort study.
  BMC psychiatry 2022 LaHue SC, Escueta DP, Guterman EL, Patel K, Harrison KL, Boscardin WJ, Douglas VC, Newman JC
• Approach to Altered Mental Status and Inpatient Delirium.
  Neurologic clinics 2022 LaHue SC, Douglas VC
• Hospital Neurology.
  Neurologic clinics 2022 Douglas VC, Shah MP
• Hospital Neurology.
  Neurologic Clinics 2022 Vanja C. Douglas, Maulik P. Shah
• KIBRA, MTNR1B, and FKBP5 genotypes are associated with decreased odds of incident delirium in elderly post-surgical patients.
  Scientific reports 2022 Terrelonge M, LaHue SC, Tang C, Movsesyan I, Pullinger CR, Dubal DB, Leung J, Douglas VC
• Postoperative delirium prediction using machine learning models and preoperative electronic health record data.
  BMC anesthesiology 2022 Bishara A, Chiu C, Whitlock EL, Douglas VC, Lee S, Butte AJ, Leung JM, Donovan AL
• Detection of Neoplasms by Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing of Cerebrospinal Fluid.
  JAMA neurology 2021 Gu W, Rauschecker AM, Hsu E, Zorn KC, Sucu Y, Federman S, Gopez A, Arevalo S, Sample HA, Talevich E, Nguyen ED, Gottschall M, Nourbakhsh B, Gold CA, Cree BAC, Douglas VC, Richie MB, Shah MP, Josephson…
• 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
• Clinical Problem Solving: An Older Woman With Weakness from Head to Toe.
  The Neurohospitalist 2021 Hartmann DA, Bock M, Douglas V, Gerdts J, Ramani B, Shah M
• Delirium in Hospitalized Adults with Confirmed SARS-CoV-2 Infection (1973).
  Neurology 2021 Sara LaHue, Nina Escueta, Elan Guterman, Vanja Douglas, John Newman
• The association of post-operative delirium with patient-reported outcomes and mortality after lung transplantation.
  Clinical transplantation 2021 DeBolt CL, Gao Y, Sutter N, Soong A, Leard L, Jeffrey G, Kleinhenz ME, Calabrese D, Greenland J, Venado A, Hays SR, Shah R, Kukreja J, Trinh B, Kolaitis NA, Douglas V, Diamond JM, Smith P, Singer J
• A matter of timing: EEG monitoring for neurological prognostication after cardiac arrest in the era of targeted temperature management.
  Minerva anestesiologica 2021 Khazanova D, Douglas VC, Amorim E
• Chapter 62 Dementia and Systemic Disease.
  2021 Vanja C. Douglas, S. Andrew Josephson
• Chapter 9 Neurologic Complications of Cardiac Arrest.
  2021 Vanja C. Douglas
• An Implementation-Effectiveness Study of a Perioperative Delirium Prevention Initiative for Older Adults.
  Anesthesia and analgesia 2020 Donovan AL, Braehler MR, Robinowitz DL, Lazar AA, Finlayson E, Rogers S, Douglas VC, Whitlock EL, Anesthesia Resident Quality Improvement Committee
• Derivation, Validation, Sustained Performance, and Clinical Impact of an Electronic Medical Record-Based Perioperative Delirium Risk Stratification Tool.
  Anesthesia and analgesia 2020 Whitlock EL, Braehler MR, Kaplan JA, Finlayson E, Rogers SE, Douglas V, Donovan AL
• The One-Two Punch of Delirium and Dementia During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond.
  Frontiers in neurology 2020 LaHue SC, Douglas VC, Miller BL
• Melatonin Receptor-1B Genotype, KIBRA Genotype, and Possibly a-Klotho Plasma Level in Women are Associated with Incident Delirium in Elderly Post-surgical Patients (963).
  Neurology 2020 Mark Terrelonge, Dan Wang, Chris Tang, Irina Movseyan, Clive Pullinger, Jacqueline Leung, Dena Dubal, Vanja Douglas
• Exploratory proteomic analysis implicates the alternative complement cascade in primary CNS vasculitis.
  Neurology 2019 Mandel-Brehm C, Retallack H, Knudsen GM, Yamana A, Hajj-Ali RA, Calabrese LH, Tihan T, Sample HA, Zorn KC, Gorman MP, Madan Cohen J, Sreih AG, Marcus JF, Josephson SA, Douglas VC, Gelfand JM, Wilson …
• Clinical Metagenomic Sequencing for Diagnosis of Meningitis and Encephalitis.
  The New England journal of medicine 2019 Wilson MR, Sample HA, Zorn KC, Arevalo S, Yu G, Neuhaus J, Federman S, Stryke D, Briggs B, Langelier C, Berger A, Douglas V, Josephson SA, Chow FC, Fulton BD, DeRisi JL, Gelfand JM, Naccache SN, …
• Hospital admission and readmission among homeless patients with neurologic disease.
  Neurology 2019 Rosendale N, Guterman EL, Betjemann JP, Josephson SA, Douglas VC
• Snow laughing matter: Delirium severity increases in winter months compared with summer months (P4.1-017).
  Neurology 2019 Vanja Douglas, Judy Maselli, Sara LaHue
• Structured delirium care pathway is associated with reductions in length of stay, cost and readmissions in hospitalized adults (P4.1-016).
  Neurology 2019 Sara LaHue, Judy Maselli, Stephanie Rogers, Jennifer Canlas, Julie Carpenter, Rhiannon Croci, Yintai Fong, Ralph Gonzales, Brian Holt, S. Andrew Josephson, Sudha Lama, Charles McCulloch, Jan Yeager, …
• Association between Inpatient Delirium and Hospital Readmission in Patients ≥ 65 Years of Age: A Retrospective Cohort Study.
  Journal of hospital medicine 2019 LaHue SC, Douglas VC, Kuo T, Conell CA, Liu VX, Josephson SA, Angel C, Brooks KB
• Yield of Emergent CT in Patients With Epilepsy Presenting With a Seizure.
  The Neurohospitalist 2018 Kvam KA, Douglas VC, Whetstone WD, Josephson SA, Betjemann JP
• Development and Validation of an Electronic Health Record-Based Machine Learning Model to Estimate Delirium Risk in Newly Hospitalized Patients Without Known Cognitive Impairment.
  JAMA network open 2018 Wong A, Young AT, Liang AS, Gonzales R, Douglas VC, Hadley D
• Chronic Meningitis Investigated via Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing.
  JAMA neurology 2018 Wilson MR, O'Donovan BD, Gelfand JM, Sample HA, Chow FC, Betjemann JP, Shah MP, Richie MB, Gorman MP, Hajj-Ali RA, Calabrese LH, Zorn KC, Chow ED, Greenlee JE, Blum JH, Green G, Khan LM, Banerji D, …
• Whole-Genome mRNA Gene Expression Differs Between Patients With and Without Delirium.
  Journal of geriatric psychiatry and neurology 2018 Kalantar K, LaHue SC, DeRisi JL, Sample HA, Contag CA, Josephson SA, Wilson MR, Douglas VC
• Breaking the curve: moving from normative to criterion-based grading on neurology clerkship (S14.001).
  Neurology 2018 E. Alexandra Brown, Nina Garga, Megan Richie, Nilika Singhal, Audrey Foster-Barber, Vanja Douglas
• Yield of Emergent Computed Tomography in Epilepsy Patients Presenting with a Seizure (P3.289).
  Neurology 2018 Kathryn Kvam, Vanja Douglas, William Whetstone, S. Andrew Josephson, John Betjemann
• Central nervous system histoplasmosis: Multicenter retrospective study on clinical features, diagnostic approach and outcome of treatment.
  Medicine 2018 Wheat J, Myint T, Guo Y, Kemmer P, Hage C, Terry C, Azar MM, Riddell J, Ender P, Chen S, Shehab K, Cleveland K, Esguerra E, Johnson J, Wright P, Douglas V, Vergidis P, Ooi W, Baddley J, Bamberger D, …
• Evaluation of a multicomponent pathway to address inpatient delirium on a neurosciences ward.
  BMC health services research 2018 Brown EG, Josephson SA, Anderson N, Reid M, Lee M, Douglas VC
• Validation of a Nurse-Based Delirium-Screening Tool for Hospitalized Patients.
  Psychosomatics 2017 Hargrave A, Bastiaens J, Bourgeois JA, Neuhaus J, Josephson SA, Chinn J, Lee M, Leung J, Douglas V
• Predicting inpatient delirium: The AWOL delirium risk-stratification score in clinical practice.
  Geriatric nursing (New York, N.Y.) 2017 Brown EG, Josephson SA, Anderson N, Reid M, Lee M, Douglas VC
• Baylisascaris procyonis-Associated Meningoencephalitis in a Previously Healthy Adult, California, USA.
  Emerging infectious diseases 2016 Langelier C, Reid MJ, Halabi C, Witek N, LaRiviere A, Shah M, Wilson MR, Chin-Hong P, Douglas V, Kazacos KR, Babik JM
• Magnetic resonance neurography in the diagnosis of neuropathies of the lumbosacral plexus: a pictorial review.
  Clinical imaging 2016 Robbins NM, Shah V, Benedetti N, Talbott JF, Chin CT, Douglas VC
• Effect of a Comprehensive Inpatient Delirium Care Pathway on Incidence and Length of Stay (P6.196).
  Neurology 2016 Ethan Brown, S. Josephson, Noriko Anderson, Mary Reid, Vanja Douglas
• Validation of a Nurse-Based Delirium Screening Tool for Hospitalized Patients (P6.220).
  Neurology 2016 Anita Hargrave, James Bourgeois, Jesse Bastiaens, S. Josephson, Julia Chinn, Melissa Lee, Jacqueline Leung, Vanja Douglas
• Validation of the AWOL Tool: A Delirium Prediction Rule (P6.194).
  Neurology 2016 Ethan Brown, S. Josephson, Vanja Douglas
• National characteristics and predictors of neurologic 30-day readmissions.
  Neurology 2016 Guterman EL, Douglas VC, Shah MP, Parsons T, Barba J, Josephson SA
• A Neurohospitalist Discharge Clinic Shortens the Transition From Inpatient to Outpatient Care.
  The Neurohospitalist 2015 Shah M, Douglas V, Scott B, Josephson SA
• Hospitalist Neurology.
  Seminars in neurology 2015 Josephson SA, Douglas VC
• Moving Beyond Metabolic Encephalopathy: An Update on Delirium Prevention, Workup, and Management.
  Seminars in neurology 2015 Brown EG, Douglas VC
• Adult-onset central nervous system hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis: a case report.
  BMC neurology 2015 Pastula DM, Burish M, Reis GF, Bollen A, Cha S, Ralph J, Douglas VC
• A Prospective Comparison of Informant-based and Performance-based Dementia Screening Tools to Predict In-Hospital Delirium.
  Alzheimer disease and associated disorders 2015 Zeng L, Josephson SA, Fukuda KA, Neuhaus J, Douglas VC
• Should CT Angiography be a Routine Component of Acute Stroke Imaging?
  The Neurohospitalist 2015 Douglas V, Shamy M, Bhattacharya P
• A Neurohospitalist-staffed Discharge Clinic: Bridging and Shortening the Gap from Inpatient to Outpatient Neurology Care (P4.176).
  Neurology 2015 Maulik Shah, Vanja Douglas, Brian Scott, John Betjemann, S. Josephson
• Magnetic Resonance Neurography in the Diagnosis of Noncompressive Lumbosacral Radiculoplexus Neuropathies (P5.078).
  Neurology 2015 Nathaniel Robbins, Nancy Benedetti, Brian Scott, Cynthia Chin, Vanja Douglas
• Reduced apparent diffusion coefficient in neuromyelitis optica-associated optic neuropathy.
  Journal of neuro-ophthalmology : the official journal of the North American Neuro-Ophthalmology Society 2015 Horton JC, Douglas VC, Cha S
• An Interactive Mobile Curriculum for Teaching the Hypothesis-Driven Neurological Examination (P1.326).
  Neurology 2014 Dylan Alegria, Vanja Douglas, Chandler Mayfield, Christy Boscardin, S. Josephson, Daniel Lowenstein, Susannah Cornes
• Exhausting the differential.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2014 Chiovaro J, Douglas V, Gaggar A, Dhaliwal G
• Chapter 61 Dementia and Systemic Disease.
  Aminoff\u0027s Neurology and General Medicine 2014 Vanja C. Douglas, S. Andrew Josephson
• Diagnostic yield of electroencephalography in the medical and surgical intensive care unit.
  Neurocritical care 2013 Kamel H, Betjemann JP, Navi BB, Hegde M, Meisel K, Douglas VC, Josephson SA
• Diagnostic yield of electroencephalography in a general inpatient population.
  The Neurodiagnostic journal 2013 Betjemann JP, Nguyen I, Santos-Sanchez C, Douglas VC, Josephson SA
• The AWOL tool: derivation and validation of a delirium prediction rule.
  Journal of hospital medicine 2013 Douglas VC, Hessler CS, Dhaliwal G, Betjemann JP, Fukuda KA, Alameddine LR, Lucatorto R, Johnston SC, Josephson SA
• CXCL13 plus interleukin 10 is highly specific for the diagnosis of CNS lymphoma.
  Blood 2013 Rubenstein JL, Wong VS, Kadoch C, Gao HX, Barajas R, Chen L, Josephson SA, Scott B, Douglas V, Maiti M, Kaplan LD, Treseler PA, Cha S, Hwang JH, Cinque P, Cyster JG, Lowell C
• Diagnostic yield of electroencephalography in a general inpatient population.
  Mayo Clinic proceedings 2013 Betjemann JP, Nguyen I, Santos-Sanchez C, Douglas VC, Josephson SA
• A systematic approach to the diagnosis of suspected central nervous system lymphoma.
  JAMA neurology 2013 Scott BJ, Douglas VC, Tihan T, Rubenstein JL, Josephson SA
• The Effect of Corticosteroids on Time to Diagnosis in CNS Lymphoma and Other Inflammatory Brain Lesions (P07.007).
  Neurology 2013 Brian Scott, Vanja Douglas, Tarik Tihan, Christopher Hess, S. Josephson
• Getting to the right question.
  Journal of general internal medicine 2012 Cassese T, Kaplan E, Douglas V, Dhaliwal G
• Effect of a neurohospitalist service on outcomes at an academic medical center.
  Neurology 2012 Douglas VC, Scott BJ, Berg G, Freeman WD, Josephson SA
• Utility of MRI in spinal arteriovenous fistula.
  Neurology 2012 Toossi S, Josephson SA, Hetts SW, Chin CT, Kralik S, Jun P, Douglas VC
• Diagnostic Yield of Electroencephalography Is Substantial in the General Inpatient Population (P04.011).
  Neurology 2012 I. Nguyen, J. Betjemann, C. Santos, V. Douglas, S. Josephson
• A message from the editor in chief.
  The Neurohospitalist 2012 Douglas V
• Spinal dural arteriovenous fistulas and intrathecal venous drainage: correlation between digital subtraction angiography, magnetic resonance imaging, and clinical findings.
  Journal of neurosurgery. Spine 2012 Hetts SW, Moftakhar P, English JD, Dowd CF, Higashida RT, Lawton MT, Douglas VC, Halbach VV
• Neurohospitalist: A newly popular career choice.
  Neurology. Clinical practice 2011 Josephson SA, Douglas VC
• Altered mental status.
  Continuum (Minneapolis, Minn.) 2011 Douglas VC, Josephson SA
• Dementia=(MC)2: a 4-item screening test for mild cognitive impairment and dementia.
  Alzheimer disease and associated disorders 2011 Douglas VC, Neuhaus J, Johnson JK, Racine CA, Miller BL, Josephson SA
• Autoimmune-Mediated Encephalopathy: Classification, Evaluation, and MR Imaging Patterns of Disease.
  Neurographics 2011 Ramin R. Saket, Michael D. Geschwind, S. Andrew Josephson, Vanja C. Douglas, Christopher P. Hess
• A message from the editor in chief.
  The Neurohospitalist 2011 Douglas VC
• A proposed roadmap for inpatient neurology quality indicators.
  The Neurohospitalist 2011 Douglas VC, Josephson SA
• Neuromyelitis optica, psychiatric symptoms and primary polydipsia: a case report.
  General hospital psychiatry 2010 Woolley J, Douglas VC, Cree BA
• Presentation of reversible posterior leukoencephalopathy syndrome in patients on calcineurin inhibitors.
  Clinical neurology and neurosurgery 2010 Burnett MM, Hess CP, Roberts JP, Bass NM, Douglas VC, Josephson SA
• Urgent neurology consultation from the ED for transient ischemic attack.
  The American journal of emergency medicine 2010 Kim AS, Sidney S, Bernstein AL, Douglas VC, Johnston SC
• Delirium.
  Continuum (Minneapolis, Minn.) 2010 Douglas VC, Josephson SA
• Improvement in intensive care unit outcomes in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage after initiation of neurointensivist co-management.
  Journal of neurosurgery 2010 Josephson SA, Douglas VC, Lawton MT, English JD, Smith WS, Ko NU
• Seizures in corticobasal degeneration: a case report.
  Neurocase 2009 Douglas VC, DeArmond SJ, Aminoff MJ, Miller BL, Rabinovici GD
• Do the Brain Attack Coalition's criteria for stroke centers improve care for ischemic stroke?
  Neurology 2005 Douglas VC, Tong DC, Gillum LA, Zhao S, Brass LM, Dostal J, Johnston SC
• Alzheimer disease risk and genetic variation in ACE: a meta-analysis.
  Neurology 2004 Elkins JS, Douglas VC, Johnston SC
• Head computed tomography findings predict short-term stroke risk after transient ischemic attack.
  Stroke 2003 Douglas VC, Johnston CM, Elkins J, Sidney S, Gress DR, Johnston SC
• Ultraviolet and ionizing radiation enhance the growth of BCCs and trichoblastomas in patched heterozygous knockout mice.
  Nature medicine 1999 Aszterbaum M, Epstein J, Oro A, Douglas V, LeBoit PE, Scott MP, Epstein EH