Denise M. Connor, MD
Professor of Clinical Medicine
CLINICAL ACTIVITIES:
As a founding member of the San Francisco VA Medical Center’s Faculty Hospital Medicine Group, I attend on a range of inpatient services including our teaching service, Faculty Hospitalist Service (an attending-run service), the Co-Management Service (a consultative service for peri-operative patients), and our Swing Service, where I serve as Transfer Attending, Medicine Consult attending, and Procedure attending, while admitting patients and supporting the on-call team. A significant portion of our clinical care at the SFVA is focused on veterans who are facing a myriad of social and structural barriers that impact their health--we work to bring a team-based, interprofessional approach to our partnership with veterans and their loved ones to address both their acute medical needs and upstream modifiers of health.
EDUCATIONAL PURSUITS:
Medical education forms the cornerstone of my career and scholarship. From 2013 through 2020, I served as the Associate Program Director for PRIME, a VA-based Area of Distinction for internal medicine residents offering training in analyzing the medical literature, designing clinical research, and expanding clinical skills. In this role, I developed a longitudinal clinical reasoning series and a career series dedicated to building tools for impactful academic careers.
As the first theme lead for Clinical Reasoning within the School of Medicine's Clinical Microsystem Clerkship (CMC), and Design Lead and inaugural Director for a capstone course for our pre-clerkship students, the Diagnostic Reasoning (DR) Block (launched in 2017 and served as course director through 2022), I had the opportunity to develop and lead a novel, longitudinal curriculum focused on building foundational skills in clinical reasoning.
My mission is to improve health equity through medical education. In particular, I am interested in exploring how to bring an anti-oppressive lens to how we teach and practice team-based clinical reasoning, with the patient and their loved ones at the heart of the team. Since 2021, I have served as Director of the School of Medicine’s Anti-Oppression Curriculum Initiative (AOCI). Through this role I am honored to collaborate with faculty, students, staff, and community members to elevate the School of Medicine’s emphasis on justice and health equity across the entire four-year curriculum.
SCHOLARLY INTERESTS:
I am interested in the intersection between communication, equity, and clinical reasoning, as well as how we can bring an anti-oppression lens to medical education that supports learners to thrive and to collaborate with others to advance health equity.
As a founding member of the San Francisco VA Medical Center’s Faculty Hospital Medicine Group, I attend on a range of inpatient services including our teaching service, Faculty Hospitalist Service (an attending-run service), the Co-Management Service (a consultative service for peri-operative patients), and our Swing Service, where I serve as Transfer Attending, Medicine Consult attending, and Procedure attending, while admitting patients and supporting the on-call team. A significant portion of our clinical care at the SFVA is focused on veterans who are facing a myriad of social and structural barriers that impact their health--we work to bring a team-based, interprofessional approach to our partnership with veterans and their loved ones to address both their acute medical needs and upstream modifiers of health.
EDUCATIONAL PURSUITS:
Medical education forms the cornerstone of my career and scholarship. From 2013 through 2020, I served as the Associate Program Director for PRIME, a VA-based Area of Distinction for internal medicine residents offering training in analyzing the medical literature, designing clinical research, and expanding clinical skills. In this role, I developed a longitudinal clinical reasoning series and a career series dedicated to building tools for impactful academic careers.
As the first theme lead for Clinical Reasoning within the School of Medicine's Clinical Microsystem Clerkship (CMC), and Design Lead and inaugural Director for a capstone course for our pre-clerkship students, the Diagnostic Reasoning (DR) Block (launched in 2017 and served as course director through 2022), I had the opportunity to develop and lead a novel, longitudinal curriculum focused on building foundational skills in clinical reasoning.
My mission is to improve health equity through medical education. In particular, I am interested in exploring how to bring an anti-oppressive lens to how we teach and practice team-based clinical reasoning, with the patient and their loved ones at the heart of the team. Since 2021, I have served as Director of the School of Medicine’s Anti-Oppression Curriculum Initiative (AOCI). Through this role I am honored to collaborate with faculty, students, staff, and community members to elevate the School of Medicine’s emphasis on justice and health equity across the entire four-year curriculum.
SCHOLARLY INTERESTS:
I am interested in the intersection between communication, equity, and clinical reasoning, as well as how we can bring an anti-oppression lens to medical education that supports learners to thrive and to collaborate with others to advance health equity.
