Meghan O'Brien, MD

Associate Professor

Meghan O'Brien, MD, MBE, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Francisco, and a hospital-based general internist at San Francisco General Hospital where she leverages her training in primary care, humanities, and bioethics in service of providing dignity-driven, whole-person care.

Dr. O'Brien focuses her academic time on medical education, advancing diversity, equity and inclusion in medicine, and addiction medicine. She is a Bridges Coach for the SJV-PRIME program, teaching medical students clinical reasoning and doctoring skills, and she has been awarded four educational innovations grants to support curriculum development and educational research. Dr. O'Brien is committed to promoting an equitable and inclusive workplace and learning environment, co-leads a faculty development workshops for medical educators on selecting and designing equitable curriculum, and has been trained as a Community Ambassador to provide support to colleagues around issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion. She was member of Differences Matter Working Group 3 which worked to promote an inclusive curriculum and educational environment and co-authored the Race and Race Literacy: Toolkit and Primer for Anti-Racism. In recognition of her contributions to medical education, Dr. O’Brien was inducted into UCSF’s Academy of Medical Educators in 2022.

In addition to her clinical and educational work, Dr. O’Brien previously served as a Bay Area Regional Director for the California Bridge Project from 2019 through 2021. In this capacity, she worked with a team to support regional hospitals in building their capacity to treat patients with opioid use disorder and connect them to ongoing care.

Dr. O'Brien is a certified bilingual provider (Spanish).
Education
BA, - American Studies, Race and Ethnicity, Brown University
- Premedical, Columbia University Post-baccalaureate Premedical Program
- Internal Medicine, UCSF Primary Care General Internal Medicine Residency
- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Champion Training, University of California
MD, Master of Bioethics, - Medicine, Bioethics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Honors and Awards
  • Meghan O'Brien, MD, MBE, is an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California, San Fra, ZSFG Division of Hospital Medicine, 2022
  • Academy of Medical Educators Excellence in Teaching, UCSF, 2020
  • Department of Medicine Care Experience, ZSFG, 2020
  • Outstanding Colleague, ZSFG Division of Hospital Medicine, 2020
Publications
  1. Bullock JL, O'Brien MT, Minhas PK, Fernandez A, Lupton KL, Hauer KE. No One Size Fits All: A Qualitative Study of Clerkship Medical Students' Perceptions of Ideal Supervisor Responses to Microaggressions. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2021. PMID: 34348373


  2. Burns ST, Amobi N, Chen JV, O'Brien M, Haber LA. Readability of Patient Discharge Instructions. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2021. PMID: 34240287


  3. Haber LA, O'Brien M. Shackling Ulcer: an Upper Extremity Ulcer Secondary to Handcuffs. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2021. PMID: 33629265


  4. O'Brien M. Using an Inclusive, Sex-Positive, Gender-Neutral Approach to Taking Sexual Histories. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2020. PMID: 32119045


  5. Conner, S., Chia, D., Lalani, F., O’Brien, M., Anstey, J., Afshar, N., & Jensen, T.. Minding the Gap(s): Hospitalists Experience Aspirational, Safety, and Knowledge Deficits That Prevent Them From Practicing POCUS "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2019. PMID:


  6. Katowitz WR, O'Brien M, Kiskis E, Elliott EM. An asystolic event after eyelid skin bupivicaine injection during chalazion surgery. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2016. PMID: 26917079


  7. O'Brien M. Finding the Balance of Less is More--Reply. JAMA internal medicine 2016. PMID: 26830246


  8. O'Brien M. An Injudicious Request--Performing a Test That Is Not Indicated. JAMA internal medicine 2015. PMID: 26301792


  9. Rising KL, Padrez KA, O'Brien M, Hollander JE, Carr BG, Shea JA. Return visits to the emergency department: the patient perspective. Annals of emergency medicine 2014. PMID: 25193597


  10. O'Brien M, Fiester A. Who's at the table? Moral obligations to equal-priority surrogates in clinical ethics consultations. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2014. PMID: 25517563


  11. Thaler A, Dunlevy H, Cohn J, Speck R, O'Brien M, McCunn M. A basic needs assessment of Kenyan health care practitioners' training and ability in providing resuscitation management for patients in Mbagathi Hospital, Nairobi. Journal of clinical anesthesia 2013. PMID: 23965195