Bob Wachter
@bobwachter
Chair, UCSF Dept of Medicine. Career: What happens when a poli sci major becomes an academic physician. Author, "A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future." Hubby/Dad/Grandpa/Golfer
And congratulations to Carina Marquez for her UCSF Chancellor Award for Public Service — for her amazing work in partnering with the Bay Area community to advance health and healthcare.
So proud of my work partner Maria Novelero for being recognized with the UCSF Chancellor’s Award for Exceptional University Management. Supremely well deserved. Nobody does or cares more.
Another highlight of being on CBS Mornings today was meeting The Pitt star Patrick Ball (who was on the show after me), along with Jon LaPook. It shouldn't be too hard to pick out the real doctors in this picture, vs. the one who plays a doctor on TV.
Thrilled with today's UCSF Dept. of Medicine residency match! A brilliant group of young physicians, hailing from 32 different med schools (most frequent: UCSF 8; UCLA 6; Harvard & Stanford 5; Columbia, NYU, Yale 3 each). Eight in our MD-scientist program. Welcome!
Pretty great — in its first week out, A Giant Leap just made USA Today’s bestseller list, and is the bestselling book in several categories on Amazon.
This is pretty cool. Just a few days after its publication, "A Giant Leap" is the bestselling book on AI on Amazon's entire ebook list.
A very exciting book day in my household – on the same day I received my copy of Zeke Emanuel's new book (which I'm psyched to read), a pre-pub copy of my new book showed up as well. Mine will be publicly available on Feb 3, but available for pre-order now.
Signing off from another great UCSF Management of the Hospitalized Patient conference. #UCSFMHP2025 Thanks to wonderful speakers and 500 very engaged participants! See you next year in SF, October 15-17. 2026.
Next #UCSFMHP2025, @LucasZierMD on cardiac ischemia. Points: 1) Serial troponins are more useful to detect ischemia than EKG or single troponin (latter not sensitive enough). See algorithm below 2) Use new terminology (ACS with or without ST Elevation, vs Demand Ischemia (MI Type 2). Graphic below
Next #UCSFMHP2025: Jen Babik on viral infections in the hospital: 1) Flu: hard to diagnosis, as any older pts don't have temp; vaccine is only 50% effective. So need to test all during flu season. See table for meds. 2) RSV: Rx with ribavirin (oral, not aerosol) for severe PNA 3) Covid: see table
Andy Josephson on stroke update at #UCSFMHP2025. Key updates: 1) Most hospitals are switching from TPA to TNK (easier-to-use) 2) Endovascular therapy is indicated even after successful thrombolytics 3) Importance of permissive hypertension: don't lower BP after acute stroke
Tracy Minichiello on anticoagulation at #UCSFMHP2025. Some take-homes below. Note trends away from dual therapy (ASA+DOAC), and increasing use of reduced-dose DOACs. Also, in many patients (such as post-DVT or AFib), the benefits of anticoag exceed risks even in patients with history of falls.
At #UCSFMHP2025: Jonathan Davis on inpatient management of heart failure. Key messages are that aggressive hospital management, with Goal-Directed Medical Therapy, is key and has an impressive mortality benefit.
Key points from Lekshmi Santhosh sepsis update at #UCSFMHP2025. Remember: give fluids early in shock but de-escalate quickly once hemodynamically stable. Hot off the presses: @NEJM study showing that many ICU sepsis patients don't benefit from arterial lines nejm.org/doi/full/10....
It's always a thrill to welcome > 500 hospitalists to my annual UCSF Management of the Hospitalized Patient conference in SF. I'll tweet 1-2 take-home points from talks over the next few days. Below: Lekshmi Santhosh on sepsis updates (incl. data hot off presses) #UCSFMHP2025
My book on healthcare AI, "A Giant Leap" (sites.prh.com/agiantleapbook), is still a few months out, but it's a thrill to receive endorsements from early readers. Here are a couple of new ones, from two of my heroes: @zekeemanuel.bsky.social and Peter Lee from @microsoft.com
Very exciting to see the endorsements ("blurbs") begin to roll in for my upcoming book, "A Giant Leap: How AI is Transforming Healthcare and What That Means for Our Future" (Portfolio/Penguin Books, Feb 3, 2026). Three of them – from John Halamka, Sherry Turkle, and Vinod Khosla - below. Thanks!
In my new @SubstackInc, I tell the story of AI scribes – why starting with scribes was a wise choice for both health systems & start-ups; how scribes went from gee-whiz innovation to commodity in 2 years; & why scribes need to be just the start of the AI journey. open.substack.com/pub/robertwa...
My book on AI and Healthcare, "A Giant Leap," is still 6 months out. But there's too much happening not to start a Substack. Every month, I'll cover the key trends in AI-meets-healthcare: clinical, tech, business, ethics. More forest than trees. Subscribe: open.substack.com/pub/robertwa...
Thrilled to see my book on healthcare Al available for preorder! sites.prh.com/preview/6f5c... I tried to cut through the hype, with stories & insights on everything from scribes to surgery, hallucinations to misinformation, med education to regulation. Plus "Will there be doctors?"@portfoliobooks
So thrilled to welcome this extraordinary group of 64 young physicians to @UCSF and @UCSFimresidency. A great day! (UCPC=UCSF Health-based primary care program; SFGH=San Francisco General-based primary care; PSTP=physician-scientist training program) @UCSFIMChiefs @UCSFDOM
Yesterday, two of my healthcare heroes passed away – both brilliant, insightful & very funny. Jim Reason, the UK psychologist whose "Swiss cheese model" helped define the field of patient safety; And Ian Morrison, the Scottish futurist who explained healthcare with unmatched wit & wisdom. RIP.