Armond Esmaili, MD

Associate Professor

Armond M. Esmaili, MD is an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine (DHM). He is the Director of Quality and Safety for the Department of Neurological Surgery. He is board-certified in Internal Medicine and divides his time between patient care, hospital operations leadership, quality improvement work, and medical education.

As a hospitalist, Armond directly cares for patients on the inpatient wards and also supervises teams of resident physicians and medical students. He also cares for patients at UCSF's affiliated skilled nursing facility (the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living) for the Division of Geriatrics. As the Director of Quality and Safety for Neurological Surgery, he leads and oversees the Department's enterprise that continuously improves the quality, safety, and value of care for patients with neurosurgical disorders. He also serves on the system-wide Quality, Safety and Experience Committee (QSEC), reporting directly to UCSF Health's governing board. He has scholarly interests and experience in patient safety, care transitions for hospitalized patients, care delivery innovation, patient communication, and health systems leadership.

Armond received his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University where he majored in Human Science, graduated as Valedictorian, and was a Rhodes Scholarship national finalist. He earned his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine where he was a Health Justice Scholar. He completed his medical internship and residency in Internal Medicine at UCSF with additional training in quality improvement and health policy in the residency’s Health Systems and Leadership pathway. He then served as UCSF Chief Resident at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. Armond joined UCSF’s Division of Hospital Medicine as faculty in 2019.
Education
Chief Residency, 2019 - Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Residency, 2018 - Internal Medicine, University of Calfornia, San Francisco
Internship, 2016 - Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
M.D., 2015 - , Georgetown University School of Medicine
B.Sc., 2011 - Human Science, Georgetown University
Honors and Awards
  • Exceptional Physician Award Winner, UCSF Health, 2023
  • Exceptional Physician Award, Honorable Mention, UCSF Health, 2022
  • Hospital Medicine Peer Mentoring Award, UCSF Health, 2022
  • Caring Wisely Project Award Winner, UCSF Health, Center for Healthcare Value, 2022
  • Exceptional Physician Award, Honorable Mention, UCSF Health, 2020
  • Research & Policy Award Winner, UCSF Health, Center for Healthcare Value, 2020
  • Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Georgetown University School of Medicine, 2014
  • Gold Humanism Honor Society, Georgetown University School of Medicine, 2014
  • Rhodes Scholarship National Finalist, Georgetown University, 2012
  • Valedictorian and Summa Cum Laude, Georgetown University, 2011
  • Sigma Xi Scientific Research Honor Society, Georgetown University, 2009
Publications
  1. Prasad PA, Esmaili AM, Oreper S, Beagle AJ, Hubbard C, Raffel KE, Abe-Jones Y, Fang MC, Liu KD, Matthay MA, Kangelaris KN. Timing of antibiotic treatment identifies distinct clinical presentations among patients presenting with suspected septic shock. Journal of the American College of Emergency Physicians open. 2024. PMID: 38596320


  2. Auerbach AD, Lee TM, Hubbard CC, Ranji SR, Raffel K, Valdes G, Boscardin J, Dalal AK, Harris A, Flynn E, Schnipper JL, UPSIDE Research Group. Diagnostic Errors in Hospitalized Adults Who Died or Were Transferred to Intensive Care. JAMA internal medicine. 2024. PMID: 38190122


  3. Auerbach AD, Astik GJ, O'Leary KJ, Barish PN, Kantor MA, Raffel KR, Ranji SR, Mueller SK, Burney SN, Galinsky J, Gershanik EF, Goyal A, Chitneni PR, Rastegar S, Esmaili AM, Fenton C, Virapongse A, Ngov LK, Burden M, Keniston A, Patel H, Gupta AB, Rohde J, Marr R, Greysen SR, Fang M, Shah P, Mao F, Kaiksow F, Sterken D, Choi JJ, Contractor J, Karwa A, Chia D, Lee T, Hubbard CC, Maselli J, Dalal AK, Schnipper JL. Prevalence and Causes of Diagnostic Errors in Hospitalized Patients Under Investigation for COVID-19. Journal of general internal medicine. 2023. PMID: 36952085


  4. Sarma A, Christenson SA, Byrne A, Mick E, Pisco AO, DeVoe C, Deiss T, Ghale R, Zha BS, Tsitsiklis A, Jauregui A, Moazed F, Detweiler AM, Spottiswoode N, Sinha P, Neff N, Tan M, Serpa PH, Willmore A, Ansel KM, Wilson JG, Leligdowicz A, Siegel ER, Sirota M, DeRisi JL, Matthay MA, COMET Consortium , Hendrickson CM, Kangelaris KN, Krummel MF, Woodruff PG, Erle DJ, Calfee CS, Langelier CR. Tracheal aspirate RNA sequencing identifies distinct immunological features of COVID-19 ARDS. Nature communications. 2021. PMID: 34446707


  5. Kantor MA, Apgar SK, Esmaili AM, Khan A, Monash B, Sharpe BA. The Importance of Emotional Intelligence When Leading in a Time of Crisis. Journal of hospital medicine. 2020. PMID: 32853143


  6. Raffel KE, Kantor MA, Barish P, Esmaili A, Lim H, Xue F, Ranji SR. Prevalence and characterisation of diagnostic error among 7-day all-cause hospital medicine readmissions: a retrospective cohort study. BMJ quality & safety. 2020. PMID: 32753409


  7. LaHue SC, James TC, Newman JC, Esmaili AM, Ormseth CH, Ely EW. Collaborative Delirium Prevention in the Age of COVID-19. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 2020. PMID: 32277467


  8. Vidyarthi AR, Bagdasarian N, Esmaili AM, Archuleta S, Monash B, Sehgal NL, Green A, Lim A. Understanding the Singapore COVID-19 Experience: Implications for Hospital Medicine. Journal of hospital medicine. 2020. PMID: 32379029


  9. Esmaili AM, Christian RA, Pfaff AC.. in: Taylor AJ (ed.), Learning cardiac auscultation: from essentials to expert clinical interpretation Aortic sclerosis.. 2015. PMID:


  10. Esmaili AM, Johnson EL, Thaivalappil SS, Kuhn HM, Kornbluth S, Irusta PM. Regulation of the ATM-activator protein Aven by CRM1-dependent nuclear export. Cell cycle (Georgetown, Tex.). 2010. PMID: 20935510