Sumant Ranji, MD

Professor

Dr. Sumant Ranji is a Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine at San Francisco General Hospital and the Director of the UCSF Coordinating Center for Diagnostic Excellence (CoDEx). He completed his Internal Medicine residency training at the University of Chicago, and served as Chief Medical Resident at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. He joined UCSF in 2002 as a fellow in hospital medicine and clinical research, and subsequently joined the faculty of the Division of Hospital Medicine, initially at UCSF Health and subsequently at San Francisco General Hospital, where he has worked since 2016.

Dr. Ranji is a national expert in patient safety, with a particular focus on diagnostic excellence. He assumed the role of Director of CoDEx in 2024, leading its efforts to measurably improve diagnostic quality, safety, and equity through research and education. A central part of CoDEx's work involves the application of the rapidly advancing field of artificial intelligence to improving diagnosis. He is an an Associate Editor of BMJ Quality and Safety and is a co-investigator on AHRQ-funded diagnostic error research projects.

Dr. Ranji has held multiple leadership roles in the Department of Medicine. He served as the Chief of the Division of Hospital Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital from 2016-2023, leading the division's activities in the clinical care of hospitalized patients - including planning and leading the hospital medicine service's response to the COVID-19 pandemic - and being responsible for the mentorship and development of the division's 50 faculty and staff. Under his leadership, the division focused on improving care for vulnerable and marginalized patients by implementing innovative clinical services, leading educational and quality improvement programs, and conducting impactful research. Previously, Dr. Ranji served as associate program director for the UCSF Internal Medicine residency from 2007-2016, directing educational programs in systems improvement and developing experiential learning approaches to engage residents in improving the quality of care for hospitalized patients. He remains active in teaching medical students and residents, as well as mentoring students, residents, and faculty interested in careers in health care systems improvement. He is a member of the UCSF Academy of Medical Educators. Dr. Ranji maintains an active clinical presence, caring for hospitalized patients on the Resident Inpatient Service and Faculty Inpatient Service at San Francisco General Hospital.
Education
Chief Medical Resident, 2002 - Internal Medicine, Cook County Hospital
Internship and Residency, 2001 - Internal Medicine, University of Chicago Hospitals
M.D., 1998 - School of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago
Honors and Awards
  • Senior Fellow in Hospital Medicine, Society of Hospital Medicine, 2023
  • John F. Murray, MD Award for Excellence in Internal Medicine, ZSFG Department of Medicine, 2020
  • Excellence and Innovation in Graduate Medical Education, UCSF, 2016
  • Academy of Medical Educators, UCSF, 2015
  • Floyd C. Rector Housestaff Teaching Award, UCSF, 2009
Publications

  1. Ranji SR. Large Language Models-Misdiagnosing Diagnostic Excellence? JAMA network open 2024. PMID: 39466249


  2. Brooks KC, Raffel KE, Chia D, Karwa A, Hubbard CC, Auerbach AD, Ranji SR. Stigmatizing Language, Patient Demographics, and Errors in the Diagnostic Process. JAMA internal medicine 2024. PMID: 38619826


  3. Raffel KE, Gershanik EF, Ranji SR. Diagnostic disparities and strategies for enhancing diagnostic equity in hospital medicine. Journal of hospital medicine 2024. PMID: 38654433


  4. 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


  5. Schnipper JL, Raffel KE, Keniston A, Burden M, Glasheen J, Ranji S, Hubbard C, Barish P, Kantor M, Adler-Milstein J, John Boscardin W, Harrison JD, Dalal AK, Lee T, Auerbach A. Achieving diagnostic excellence through prevention and teamwork (ADEPT) study protocol: A multicenter, prospective quality and safety program to improve diagnostic processes in medical inpatients. Journal of hospital medicine 2023. PMID: 37888951


  6. Dalal AK, Schnipper JL, Raffel K, Ranji S, Lee T, Auerbach A. Identifying and classifying diagnostic errors in acute care across hospitals: Early lessons from the Utility of Predictive Systems in Diagnostic Errors (UPSIDE) study. Journal of hospital medicine 2023. PMID: 37211760


  7. 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


  8. Rosenthal MA, Ranji SR, Kanzaria HK, Ortiz GM, Chase J, Chodos AH, Nguyen OK, Rodriguez EG, Makam AN. Characterizing patients hospitalized without an acute care indication: A retrospective cohort study. Journal of hospital medicine 2023. PMID: 36757173


  9. Oyler JL, Myers JS, Ranji SR, Shah BJ, Franks-Snedecor R, Stucky Fisher E, Tad-Y D, Warm E, Greenwald JL, Tess A. Maximizing impact of faculty development through purposeful design: Lessons from a quality and safety education academy. Journal of hospital medicine 2022. PMID: 36451292


  10. Ranji SR, Thomas EJ. Research to improve diagnosis: time to study the real world. "Are Telehealth Visits Feasible for Vulnerable Patients?" 2022. PMID: 34987085


  11. Martin M, Snyder HR, Coffa D, Steiger S, Clement JP, Ranji SR, Azari S, Nguyen OK, Lum PJ. Time to ACT: launching an Addiction Care Team (ACT) in an urban safety-net health system. BMJ open quality 2021. PMID: 33500326


  12. Vivek Jain, Lillian B Brown, Carina Marquez, Luis Rubio, Natasha Spottiswoode, Bethlehem Churnet, Katherine Brooks, Mengyu Zhou, Timothy Muldoon, Carolyn Hendrickson, Adithya Cattamanchi, Antonio Gomez, Brian Haas, Edwin Charlebois, Annie Luetkemeyer, Annie Luetkemeyer, Monica Gandhi, Diane Havlir, Sumant Ranji, Lisa Gail Winston. 448. Disproportionate Burden of COVID-19 on Latinx Residents among Hospitalized Patients at San Francisco’s Public Health Hospital. Open Forum Infectious Diseases 2020. PMID:


  13. 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


  14. Ranji SR. What Gets Measured Gets (Micro)managed. JAMA 2020. PMID: 32369138


  15. Haber LA, Erickson HP, Ranji SR, Ortiz GM, Pratt LA. Acute Care for Patients Who Are Incarcerated: A Review. JAMA internal medicine 2019. PMID: 31524937


  16. van Schaik SM, Chang A, Fogh S, Haehn M, Lyndon A, O'Brien B, O'Sullivan P, Ranji S, Rosenbluth G, Sehgal N, Tabas J, Baron RB. Jump-Starting Faculty Development in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety Education: A Team-Based Approach. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2019. PMID: 31663959


  17. Ranji S. Who Will Guard the Guardians? Preventing Drug Diversion in Hospitals. Journal of hospital medicine 2019. PMID: 31251166


  19. Raffel KE, Gupta N, Vercammen-Grandjean C, Hohman J, Ranji S, Pierluissi E, Mourad M. A Discharge Time-Out: A Case Study on Physician-Nurse Discharge Communication and the Challenge of Sustainability in Resident-Led Quality Improvement. American journal of medical quality : the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality 2018. PMID: 30345785


  20. Ludwin S, Harrison JD, Ranji S, Sharpe BA, Kneeland P. Training Residents in Hospital Medicine: The Hospitalist Elective National Survey. Journal of hospital medicine 2018. PMID: 29578550


  21. Patel S, Rajkomar A, Harrison JD, Prasad PA, Valencia V, Ranji SR, Mourad M. Next-generation audit and feedback for inpatient quality improvement using electronic health record data: a cluster randomised controlled trial. BMJ quality & safety 2018. PMID: 29507124


  22. Valencia V, Arora VM, Ranji SR, Meza C, Moriates C. A Comparison of Laboratory Testing in Teaching vs Nonteaching Hospitals for 2 Common Medical Conditions. JAMA internal medicine 2018. PMID: 29131899


  23. Shaikh U, Afsar-Manesh N, Amin AN, Clay B, Ranji SR. Using an online quiz-based reinforcement system to teach healthcare quality and patient safety and care transitions at the University of California. International journal for quality in health care : journal of the International Society for Quality in Health Care 2017. PMID: 28992149


  24. Narayana S, Rajkomar A, Harrison JD, Valencia V, Dhaliwal G, Ranji SR. What Happened to My Patient? An Educational Intervention to Facilitate Postdischarge Patient Follow-Up. Journal of graduate medical education 2017. PMID: 29075385


  25. Rosenbluth G, Burman NJ, Ranji SR, Boscardin CK. Development of a Multi-Domain Assessment Tool for Quality Improvement Projects. Journal of graduate medical education 2017. PMID: 28824761


  26. Monash B, Najafi N, Mourad M, Rajkomar A, Ranji SR, Fang MC, Glass M, Milev D, Ding Y, Shen A, Sharpe BA, Harrison JD. Standardized Attending Rounds to Improve the Patient Experience: A Pragmatic Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal of hospital medicine 2017. PMID: 28272589


  27. Duong JA, Jensen TP, Morduchowicz S, Mourad M, Harrison JD, Ranji SR. Exploring Physician Perspectives of Residency Holdover Handoffs: A Qualitative Study to Understand an Increasingly Important Type of Handoff. Journal of general internal medicine 2017. PMID: 28194689


  28. Rajkomar A, Ranji SR, Sharpe B. Using the Electronic Health Record to Identify Educational Gaps for Internal Medicine Interns. Journal of graduate medical education 2017. PMID: 28261404


  29. Fletcher KE, Ranji SR. Does it matter how much physician trainees work anymore? BMJ quality & safety 2016. PMID: 27118871


  30. Margolius D, Ranji SR. Quality improvement, quality measurement and medical education: a brewing culture clash? BMJ quality & safety 2015. PMID: 26188058


  31. Sheu L, Fung K, Mourad M, Ranji S, Wu E. We need to talk: Primary care provider communication at discharge in the era of a shared electronic medical record. Journal of hospital medicine 2015. PMID: 25755159


  32. Butcher BW, Quist CE, Harrison JD, Ranji SR. The effect of a rapid response team on resident perceptions of education and autonomy. Journal of hospital medicine 2015. PMID: 25603788


  33. Rennke S, Ranji SR. Transitional care strategies from hospital to home: a review for the neurohospitalist. The Neurohospitalist 2015. PMID: 25553228


  36. Ranji SR, Moriates C. Neurohospitalists and patient safety: lessons learned in 2013. The Neurohospitalist 2014. PMID: 24707330


  37. Solan LG, Ranji SR, Shah SS. The successes and challenges of hospital to home transitions. Journal of hospital medicine 2014. PMID: 24616328


  38. Shoeb M, Khanna R, Fang M, Sharpe B, Finn K, Ranji S, Monash B. Internal medicine rounding practices and the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education core competencies. Journal of hospital medicine 2014. PMID: 24493566


  39. Mookherjee S, Ranji S, Neeman N, Sehgal N. An advanced quality improvement and patient safety elective. The clinical teacher 2013. PMID: 24219520


  40. Hauer KE, Soni K, Cornett P, Kohlwes J, Hollander H, Ranji SR, Ten Cate O, Widera E, Calton B, O'Sullivan PS. Developing entrustable professional activities as the basis for assessment of competence in an internal medicine residency: a feasibility study. Journal of general internal medicine 2013. PMID: 23595926


  41. Mookherjee S, Pheatt L, Ranji SR, Chou CL. Physical examination education in graduate medical education--a systematic review of the literature. Journal of general internal medicine 2013. PMID: 23568186


  42. Bischoff K, Goel A, Hollander H, Ranji SR, Mourad M. The Housestaff Incentive Program: improving the timeliness and quality of discharge summaries by engaging residents in quality improvement. BMJ quality & safety 2013. PMID: 23704085


  43. Kalanithi L, Coffey CE, Mourad M, Vidyarthi AR, Hollander H, Ranji SR. The effect of a resident-led quality improvement project on improving communication between hospital-based and outpatient physicians. American journal of medical quality : the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality 2013. PMID: 23526358


  44. Rennke S, Nguyen OK, Shoeb MH, Magan Y, Wachter RM, Ranji SR. Hospital-initiated transitional care interventions as a patient safety strategy: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine 2013. PMID: 23460101


  45. Hauer KE, Kohlwes J, Cornett P, Hollander H, Ten Cate O, Ranji SR, Soni K, Iobst W, O'Sullivan P. Identifying entrustable professional activities in internal medicine training. Journal of graduate medical education 2013. PMID: 24404227


  46. Shekelle PG, Wachter RM, Pronovost PJ, Schoelles K, McDonald KM, Dy SM, Shojania K, Reston J, Berger Z, Johnsen B, Larkin JW, Lucas S, Martinez K, Motala A, Newberry SJ, Noble M, Pfoh E, Ranji SR, Rennke S, Schmidt E, Shanman R, Sullivan N, Sun F, Tipton K, Treadwell JR, Tsou A, Vaiana ME, Weaver SJ, Wilson R, Winters BD. Making health care safer II: an updated critical analysis of the evidence for patient safety practices. Evidence report/technology assessment 2013. PMID: 24423049


  47. Moriates C, Soni K, Lai A, Ranji S. The value in the evidence: teaching residents to "choose wisely". JAMA internal medicine 2013. PMID: 23358796


  48. Joshua Lakin, Elizabeth Le, Harry Hollander, Michelle Mourad, Sumant Ranji, Krishan Soni, Wendy Anderson. A Resident-Led Quality Improvement Program for Increasing Documentation of Advance Care Planning Discussions (FR407-C). Journal of pain and symptom management 2013. PMID:


  49. Haber LA, Lau CY, Sharpe BA, Arora VM, Farnan JM, Ranji SR. Effects of increased overnight supervision on resident education, decision-making, and autonomy. Journal of hospital medicine 2012. PMID: 22865395


  50. Mourad M, Ranji S, Sliwka D. A randomized controlled trial of the impact of a teaching procedure service on the training of internal medicine residents. Journal of graduate medical education 2012. PMID: 23730437


  51. Neeman N, Ranji SR, Sehgal NL. Perspective: engaging trainees in performance improvement projects: the Quality and Safety Innovation Challenge. American journal of medical quality : the official journal of the American College of Medical Quality 2012. PMID: 22550347


  52. John Q. Young, Andrew D. Auerbach, Sumant R. Ranji. Impact of the “July Effect” on Patient Outcomes. Annals of internal medicine 2012. PMID:


  53. Kohlwes RJ, Cornett P, Dandu M, Julian K, Vidyarthi A, Minichiello T, Shunk R, Jain S, Harleman E, Ranji S, Sharpe B, O'Sullivan P, Hollander H. Developing educators, investigators, and leaders during internal medicine residency: the area of distinction program. Journal of graduate medical education 2011. PMID: 23205204


  54. Young JQ, Ranji SR, Wachter RM, Lee CM, Niehaus B, Auerbach AD. "July effect": impact of the academic year-end changeover on patient outcomes: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine 2011. PMID: 21747093


  55. Mourad M, Vidyarthi AR, Hollander H, Ranji SR. Shifting indirect patient care duties to after hours in the era of work hours restrictions. Academic medicine : journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges 2011. PMID: 21436665


  56. Mookherjee S, Vidyarthi AR, Ranji SR, Maselli J, Wachter RM, Baron RB. Potential unintended consequences due to Medicare's "no pay for errors" rule? A randomized controlled trial of an educational intervention with internal medicine residents. Journal of general internal medicine 2010. PMID: 20532660


  57. Natarajan P, Ranji SR, Auerbach AD, Hauer KE. Effect of hospitalist attending physicians on trainee educational experiences: a systematic review. Journal of hospital medicine 2009. PMID: 19824099


  58. Wood KA, Ranji SR, Ide B, Dracup K. Rapid response systems in adult academic medical centers. Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety 2009. PMID: 19769208


  59. Sehgal NL, Ranji SR, Shojania KG, Cucina RJ, Hartman EE, Zipperer L, Wachter RM. Development of a Web-Based Patient Safety Resource: AHRQ Patient Safety Network (PSNet) Advances in Patient Safety: New Directions and Alternative Approaches (Vol. 3: Performance and Tools) 2008. PMID:


  60. Ranji SR, Steinman MA, Shojania KG, Gonzales R. Interventions to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing: a systematic review and quantitative analysis. Medical care 2008. PMID: 18665065


  61. Ranji SR, Shojania KG. Implementing patient safety interventions in your hospital: what to try and what to avoid. The Medical clinics of North America 2008. PMID: 18298979


  62. Ranji SR, Auerbach AD, Hurd CJ, O'Rourke K, Shojania KG. Effects of rapid response systems on clinical outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of hospital medicine 2007. PMID: 18081187


  63. Sumant R. Ranji, L. Elizabeth Goldman, David L. Simel, Kaveh G. Shojania. Opiates and Acute Abdominal Pain—Reply. JAMA 2007. PMID:


  64. Kaveh G. Shojania, Sumant R. Ranji, Kathryn M. McDonald, Jeremy M. Grimshaw, Robert J. Rushakoff, Douglas K. Owens. Quality Improvement Strategies for Type 2 Diabetes—Reply. JAMA 2006. PMID:


  65. Ranji SR, Goldman LE, Simel DL, Shojania KG. Do opiates affect the clinical evaluation of patients with acute abdominal pain? JAMA 2006. PMID: 17032990


  66. Shojania KG, Ranji SR, McDonald KM, Grimshaw JM, Sundaram V, Rushakoff RJ, Owens DK. Effects of quality improvement strategies for type 2 diabetes on glycemic control: a meta-regression analysis. JAMA 2006. PMID: 16868301


  67. Steinman MA, Ranji SR, Shojania KG, Gonzales R. Improving antibiotic selection: a systematic review and quantitative analysis of quality improvement strategies. Medical care 2006. PMID: 16799356


  68. Ranji SR, Shojania KG, Trowbridge RL, Auerbach AD. Impact of reliance on CT pulmonary angiography on diagnosis of pulmonary embolism: a Bayesian analysis. Journal of hospital medicine 2006. PMID: 17219477


  69. Ranji SR, Rosenman DJ, Amin AN, Kripalani S. Hospital medicine fellowships: works in progress. The American journal of medicine 2006. PMID: 16431196


  70. Ranji SR, Shojania KG. Suspected pulmonary embolism. The New England journal of medicine 2004. PMID: 14702433