Health Systems Leadership

The Health Systems Leadership area of distinction is a specific track designed for residents and fellows at UCSF who are interested in becoming both outstanding physicians as well as future leaders and innovators. HSL supports a wide range of career goals — from those aspiring to clinical and educational leadership roles, as well as those planning to pursue careers in healthcare policy, systems improvement, innovation, or entrepreneurship in healthcare. HSL welcomes participation by residents with prior experience and/or interest in healthcare administration, organizational management, systems or quality improvement, patient safety, health policy, or innovation in healthcare.

The Health systems Leadership Pathway cohort will be meeting in-person for the Friday morning half-day sessions beginning 2025-2026.

Core Elements of the Pathway

Two Year Longitudinal Curriculum
  • A 2-year longitudinal curriculum based on the American College of Healthcare Executives core competencies covering the principles and practices of effective leadership, including identifying one’s core values, communication and relationship management, setting organizational direction, aligning and motivating others, negotiation, and business knowledge for the healthcare environment
  • Learners are expected to participate and contribute throughout the two years of the curriculum 
  • Sessions are focused on personal development of leadership skills, core knowledge in quality and safety improvement, and current healthcare policy, and novel frameworks for individual inquiry
Speaker Series

A speaker series featuring invited guests ranging from recent graduates of our program to health systems leaders, digital health entrepreneurs, and healthcare policy researchers designed to expose participants to a variety of career paths and perspectives and provide an opportunity to learn from fellow physician leaders a few years ahead in their careers.

Individualized Project Experience

A challenging, individualized project-based experience that gives participants the opportunity to work with HSL leadership to identify a mentor and develop a project of personal interest. These projects may range from systems improvement efforts to healthcare policy work or traditional academic research, and often lead to journal publications, conference presentations, op-eds, or other meaningful capstone projects.

Previous Projects
Year Project Title Client Dissemination
2013 A Resident Initiative to Increase Use of Naltrexone for Alcohol Use Disorder at a Safety Net Hospital SFGH SGIM, IHI, SFGH Medicine Grand Rounds. Resulted in new funding for RN position to screen hospitalized patients for AUD.
2014 SF CARES: Strategies for Coordinating Access & Resources for Excellence in Specialty Care SFDPH SGIM, JHCPU publication
2015 Discharge Time-out at UCSF Hospital UCSF SGIM (manuscript submitted)
2016 Home-Based Primary Care: Front Line Perspectives in the Era of Value-Based Reimbursement OPHAC SGIM. Part of successful proposal to create an Age-Friendly Healthcare System (1.8M)
2017 Changing the Narrative: Reducing CHF Hospital Readmissions ZSFGH SGIM
2018 Strategies Utilized by Large Academic ACOs Participating in Medicare Shared Savings Programs (MSSP) OPHAC SGIM
2019 Improving Opiate Prescribing at Hospital Discharge UCSF Health UCSF Health Quality Symposium
2020 Discharge Milestones Enhancement UCSF Health SGIM
2021 Health Care Quality Ratings in California's Health Exchange Covered California SHM
2022 Reducing 2AM Blood Glucose Measurements In Hospitalized Adults UCSF Health Poster - Rector Symposium
2023

Barriers to Adoption of the Enhanced Care Management program of the CalAim Initiative

CA DHCS Poster - Rector Symposium
2024 Improving the Quality of Discharge Instructions Following Hospitalization UCSF Health Society of Hospital Medicine Poster Session
2025 TBD