Josue Zapata, MD, MBA

Associate Professor

Josué Zapata is the Deputy Chief of the Medical Service at the San Francisco VA Health Care System, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, and the Assistant Chair for Leadership Development for the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.

Josué received his BA from New York University, where he was a Presidential Honors Scholar. He subsequently earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and a Masters of Business Administration from Harvard Business School. He completed his residency training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco and also served as Chief Resident.

Josué specializes in Hospital Medicine at the San Francisco VA where he also leads the Peer Review Committee and is a member of the Medical Executive Committee. Prior to his current roles, Dr. Zapata served as the Associate Chief of Staff for Quality, Safety, and Value at the SFVAHCS, spent nine years as a medical student coach at UCSF, and was an executive board member of the Bay Area Chapter of the Society of Hospital Medicine.

Josué's scholarly interests include developing leaders in academic medicine, quality and value improvement, medical education and professional development of trainees, and supporting diversity in healthcare. He is excited about improving the practice of medicine and optimizing patient outcomes through leadership training, healthcare administration, and systems improvement.
Education
Certificate, - Latin American/Latino/a Studies, City College of San Francisco
M.B.A., - , Harvard Business School
M.D., - , Harvard Medical School
B.A., - College of Arts and Sciences, New York University
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California
Chief Residency, - Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Residency, - Internal Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Honors and Awards
  • Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators, UCSF, 2020
  • Maxine Papadakis Award for Faculty Professionalism and Respect, UCSF School of Medicine, 2020
  • Excellence in Teaching Award for Clinical Faculty c/o 2019, UCSF School of Medicine, 2019
  • Excellence in Teaching Award, Academy of Medical Educators, UCSF, 2018
  • Cooke Award for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, UCSF, 2016
  • Chief Resident, UCSF Dept. of Medicine, 2014
  • Aesculapian Club, Harvard Medical School, 2010
  • Linnane Scholarship for Academic Achievement, Harvard Medical School, 2009
  • Presidential Honors Scholar, New York University, 2003
Publications
  1. Baskin N, Javaherian K, Zapata J, Litwin R, Wray CM. Reducing hospital admission delay times using a structured, systematic, multi-disciplinary approach. Journal of hospital medicine 2025. PMID: 40235141


  2. Zapata J, Raffel K. Leadership & professional development: Strategies to disagree productively: Persuasive DISNT. Journal of hospital medicine 2024. PMID: 39526548


  3. Zapata J, Price E, Wlodarczyk S. Fracture Blisters. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2022. PMID: 35419743


  4. O'Brien BC, Zapata J, Chang A, Pierluissi E. Bridging medical education goals and health system outcomes: An instrumental case study of pre-clerkship students' improvement projects. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2022. PMID: 35394613


  5. Zapata J, Chou C. Leadership & Professional Development: Make the Most of Your Oranges. Journal of hospital medicine 2020. PMID: 31869301


  6. Wheeler DJ, Zapata J, Davis D, Chou C. Twelve tips for responding to microaggressions and overt discrimination: When the patient offends the learner. Medical teacher 2018. PMID: 30277121


  7. Wlodarczyk S, Zapata JA. Uremic Frost. Mayo Clinic proceedings 2018. PMID: 30286839


  8. Le NB, Zapata J. Atypical Pressure Ulcer as Cellulitis Mimic. Journal of general internal medicine 2018. PMID: 29992424


  9. Zapata JA, Lai AR, Moriates C. Is Excessive Resource Utilization an Adverse Event? JAMA 2017. PMID: 28245327


  10. Zapata JA, Widera E. Partial Codes-A Symptom of a Larger Problem. JAMA internal medicine 2016. PMID: 27295527


  11. Zapata JA, Moriates C. The High-Value Care Considerations of Inpatient versus Outpatient Testing. AMA journal of ethics 2015. PMID: 26595242


  12. Doshi S, Chen TF, Zapata J, Holzman RS, Zapata LC, Aberg JA, Sivapalasingam S. Risk factors for tuberculin skin test conversion among HIV-infected patients in New York City. International journal of infectious diseases : IJID : official publication of the International Society for Infectious Diseases 2012. PMID: 22542005