First- and Second-Year Electives

The list below documents electives that change from quarter to quarter. This is a partial listing; additional electives may be advertised on separate announcements or offered by other schools. For more information on elective coordination and advertising to other UCSF schools, please see this Elective Coordinators website.

Supervised Study and Laboratory Project Course Offerings: Please see the Registrar's Course Catalog.

Sign up for Electives via your online study list on Registrar's SAA Portal 

MD Competencies referenced in elective listings: 

• Patient Care (PC)
• Medical Knowledge (MK)
• Practice-Based Learning & Improvement (PBLI)
• Interpersonal & Communication Skills (ICS)
• Professionalism (Prof)
• Systems-Based Practice (SBP)
• Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) - indicated using the IP codes below

Inter-Professional Level of Learning² referenced in elective listings: Adapted by Dr. Susan Hyde from Reeves S, Lewin S, Espin S, Zwarenstein M (2010) Interprofessional Teamwork for Health and Social Care. Blackwell-Wiley, London.

• Interprofessional Education (I): Members (or students) of two or more health and/or social care professions engage in learning with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the delivery of care.
• Multiprofessional Education (M): Members (or students) of two or more professions learn alongside one another; in other words, parallel rather than interactive learning.
• Uniprofessional Education (U): Education that is undertaken by individuals within the same profession.

Rooms:
S is Medical Sciences, 513 Parnassus
CS is Clinical Sciences, 521 Parnassus
CL is Campus Library 2nd floor

Spring 2025 (Fall 2025 elective information will be available in July/August)

Course number: Family & Community Medicine 170.01E
Course title: Caring for Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Patient Populations 
Faculty: Erica Brode & Patricia Loftus
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Mostly Mondays, 3/31, 4/7, 4/14, 4/21, 4/28, 5/12, 5/19, 6/2 and one Friday 5/30, 12:10-1:00 pm, all in person (CS-1111) and Zoom
Student Coordinators: Arezo Ahmadi & James Lawrence
MD Competencies: PC, ICS, Prof, IPC
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: M

Course number: Medicine 170.01A (Listed as Special Issues in Health Care w/Cindy Lai)
Course title: Disability Advocacy & Support Alliance Elective
Faculty: Clarissa Kripke
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Fridays, 12:10-1pm, CS 1107/1108 (4/18 & 5/23 in CS 1108 only)
Dates: 4/4, 4/18, 4/25, 5/2, 5/16, 5/23
Student coordinator: Arezo Ahmadi
MD Competencies: PC, ICS, Prof
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: I

Course number: Medicine 170.01B (Listed as Special Issues in Health Care w/Cindy Lai)
Course title: Sports Medicine
Faculty: Faustine Ramirez & Carlin Senter
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Wednesdays, 12:10-1pm, Room CS-1111
Dates: 4/2, 4/9, 4/17 (Thursday in Room CS-0101), 4/30, 5/8, 5/12 (Room S-157), 5/23
Student coordinators: Arezo Ahmadi, Jillian Neuner, Sebastian Penarosa, Evan Tansimore
MD Competencies: PC, MK, PBLI
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: U

Course number: Medicine 170.07
Course title: Communicating with the Latinx Patient/Medical Spanish
Faculty: Leslie Seijo
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Mondays, 12:10-1pm, Room CS-1109
Dates: 4/7, 4/14, 4/21, 4/28, 5/5, 5/12, 5/19, 6/2, 6/9
Student coordinators: Belen Bravo, Andrea Sandoval, Luis Estrada-Chou, Meiyi Yu, Claudia Carrillo & Maria Wangamez
MD Competencies: MK, ICS
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: I

Course number: Medicine 170.41
Course title: Word on the Wards: Inpatient Health Education at ZSFGH
Faculty: Kelly Han & Jamie Yao
# of units: 1.0
Dates, times, rooms: Monday, 3/31, 5:30-7:30pm, CS-0101; Wednesday, April 9th, 5:30-7:30pm, CS-0101;
Dates, times at ZSFGH:
1. Thursday April 3rd -(1:30-4:30PM):
2. Saturday, April 12th (10:00AM-1:00PM):
3. Sunday, April 13th (10:00AM-1:00PM):
4. Tuesday May 6th (10:30AM-1:30PM):
5.  Wednesday May 7th (1:30PM-4:30PM):
6.  Saturday May 10th (10:00AM-1:00PM):
Student coordinator: Karida Ean, Isabelle Fisher, Jade Laguer, Sophia Sears, Saffanat Sumra, Meiyi Yu
MD Competencies: MK, PBLI, ICS
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: U

Course number: Medicine 170.42
Course title: Collaborative Clinical Case Investigation (Medical Student Rounds/Internal Medicine Interest Group)
Faculty: Cindy Lai
# of units: 1.0
Day, time: Fridays, 12:10-1pm
Dates & Room location: 4/18, 4/25, 5/2, 5/9 in CS 1113/1114; 5/16, 5/23 in S-159; 5/30 in CS-1102/1103; 6/6 in CS 1113/1114
Student coordinators: Brendan Rose, Christabelle Junaidi, Flora Wong
MD Competencies: MK, PBLI, ICS
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: M

Course number: Medicine 170.53
Course title: Innovating Healthcare: From Concept to Reality
Faculty: Ryan Pierce
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Wednesdays, 4:30-5:45pm, CS-1111 (4/30 & 5/7 in CS-0101)
Dates: 4/2, 4/9, 4/16, 4/23, 4/30, 5/7, 5/14, 5/21, 5/28, 6/4
Student coordinator: Nathan Ramrakhiani
MD Competencies: MK, PBLI
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: M

Course number: Neurology 170.11
Course title: Exploring Pediatric Neurology
Faculty: Sharon Wietstock
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Fridays, 12-1pm, Room S-159 (Med Sci)
Dates: 4/3, 4/17, 4/24, 5/8, 5/15, 5/22, 5/29, 6/5
Student coordinators: Ilaria Stewart, Zoe Day, Vincent Basas, Elizabeth Li, Jonah Goldman
MD Competencies: PC, MK
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: U

Course number: Neurology 170.12
Course title: Explorations in Neurology
Faculty: Courtney Lane-Donovan & Jill Goslinga
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Fridays, 12-1pm, Room CS 1102/1103
Dates: 4/4, 4/25, 5/9, 5/16, 5/23, 6/6
Student coordinators: Ilaria Stewart, Alexander Chen, Zoe Day, Matthew Halber
MD Competencies: PC, MK
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: U

Course number: OBGYN 170.13
Course title: Introduction to High Value Care
Faculty: George Sawaya
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Tuesdays, 12-1pm, Zoom & some dates in person. Room CS 1111
Dates: January 21, 28; February 4, 11, 18, 25; March 4, 11 (Room CS 1116/1117), 18; March 25 & April 1 (Room CS 1116/1117).
Student coordinators: Lida Khoshniat-Rad, Farnaz Jahani, Alexander Chen, Yasmin Leon, Joyce Chen
MD Competencies: PC, MK, SBP
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: U

Course number: Psychiatry 170.01
Course title: Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (Winter & Spring 2025)
Faculty: Descartes Li
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Mondays, 12-1pm, Room S-214 (Lecture Hall)
Evenings: Monday, 2/3 5-7pm in CS 1111; Tuesday, 2/25 5-7pm in CS 1111; Monday, 3/3 5-7pm in CS 1111
Monday dates, 12-1pm: 1/27, 2/3, 2/10, 2/24, 3/3, 3/10, 3/17, 3/31, 4/10 (Thursday), 4/14
Student coordinator: Matthew Allen
MD Competencies: PC, MK
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: M

Course number: Psychiatry 170.17B (Register in Spring 2025, NOT Winter quarter)
Course title: Explorations in Psychiatry
Faculty: Descartes Li
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location:
Dates 12-1pm: March 4, 18; April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; May 6, 13, 20, 27, June 3- in Room CS 1111
Dates 6-7:30pm: April 1, 29; May 6 in Room CS 1102/1103
Student coordinator: Hannah Silverman
MD Competencies: PC, MK, PBLI, SBP
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: U

Course number: Surgery 160.08 (Register in Spring 2025, NOT Winter quarter)
Course title: The Organ Transplant Experience
Faculty: Garrett Roll
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: Introductory lecture: Friday, March 7th 12-1pm in HSW-303
All remaining times will be in Spring quarter: Fridays, 12-1pm all in HSW-303; April 4,18 & 25; May 9, 16, 23, 30
Student coordinator: Arezo Ahmadi, Hashem Kathoum, Grace Kloss, Saffanat Sumra
MD Competencies: PC, MK, PBLI
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: U

Course number: Surgery 160.17
Course title: Trauma Surgery Elective
Faculty: Joseph Cuschieri
# of units: 1.0
Day, time, & Room Location: As arranged
Student coordinators:
MD Competencies: PC, MK, PBLI
Inter-Professional Level of Learning: U