Sarah Patterson, MD | Principle Investigator | Assistant Professor | [email protected]
Dr. Patterson is a rheumatology physician scientist in the UCSF Department of Medicine and a member of the research faculty at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health (OCIH). She pursued her undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her MD from UCSF. She continued her training at UCSF by completing an Internal Medicine residency, rheumatology fellowship, and postdoctoral research fellowship in Integrative Health. She joined the UCSF Rheumatology Division faculty in 2019 and became a UCSF Osher Center core research faculty member in 2022.
Dr. Patterson’s research aims to advance the understanding and management of rheumatic diseases by determining the impact of lifestyle factors—including physical activity, nutrition, and stress management—on disease outcomes. She has completed multiple studies investigating the effects of stress, stress resilience, and physical activity on inflammatory pathways and clinical outcomes in people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). She is the principle investigator for a pilot study testing the feasibility and acceptability of a mindfulness-based intervention for people living with RA. She is committed to translating her research into improvements in patient-centered rheumatology care, and to that end her work also examines effective applications of integrative health approaches in rheumatology.
In her clinical work, Dr. Patterson specializes in SLE and combining evidence-based integrative health approaches with standard of care disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). She established one of the first university-based integrative rheumatology clinics, which is based at the UCSF Osher Center. She provides direct patient care in the UCSF Lupus Clinic, the UCSF Osher Center Clinic, and in the UCSF hospital when she is attending on the inpatient rheumatology consult service.
Sarah M. Fisher, MS | Lab Manager | [email protected]
Sarah Fisher joined the Patterson Lab in December 2023 to oversee the launch of the second and third phases of the DREAMER study. She received her BA in Psychology with a minor in Predictive Health from Emory University and her MS in Psychology from Drexel University. Within the Patterson Lab, she is responsible for protocol development, orchestrating participant recruitment and enrollment, the creation and management of study databases, and maintaining day-to-day lab operations. Prior to graduate school, she served as a clinical research coordinator on numerous integrative health projects both within and outside of the Osher Center, and she is excited to be back working with Dr. Patterson (as well as Dr. Mason in the SEA Lab)!
Stefanie Roberts, BS | Clinical Research Coordinator | [email protected]
Stefanie Roberts joined the Patterson lab in June 2024. At the Patterson lab, Stefanie is a Clinical Research Coordinator for the DREAMER study, which aims to test the feasibility and acceptability of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course for improving disease outcomes in RA. Stefanie received her Bachelor’s Degree in Biology from San Francisco State University. Stefanie is also the Lab Manager of the SEA Lab. Stefanie joined the SEA Lab in June 2022. At the SEA Lab, she helps Dr. Mason on a variety of projects including Sleep Group and the HEATBED Study. Stefanie is interested in learning about non-pharmacological treatments for physical and mental health.
Co-Investigators
Fredrick Hecht, MD | [email protected]
I am trained in Internal Medicine, with additional training in clinical research methods, biostatistics, and behavioral medicine. My research focus for many years was on HIV. In 2002, I became Director of Research at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. My research is driven by the belief that modern medicine has made impressive advances in treating a range of health conditions, but that further advances for many of the most important health problems of our era, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and mental health issues require improved development and implementation of lifestyle and other non-pharmacologic approaches. An important goal of my research program is to rigorously test whether we can improve interventions for chronic health problems such as HIV, diabetes, obesity, and stress, by incorporating mindfulness and/or yoga-based components.
Patty Moran, PhD | [email protected]
Dr. Patty Moran is a co-investigator on the Dreamer Study, providing input on aspects of study design, implementation, and management. Since 2002, she has been the project director for a number of patient-oriented behavioral studies at the Osher Center, including two National Institutes of Health Center of Excellence randomized controlled clinical trials examining mindfulness-based interventions. In addition to her research position at the Osher Center, Dr. Moran is also a clinical psychologist in the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center. Prior to working at UCSF, Dr. Moran received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Iowa, completed clinical internship with a specialization in Behavioral Medicine at the Palo Alto Veterans Administration Hospital, and completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Psychology and Medicine at UCSF.
Wendy Hartogensis, PhD, MPH | Biostatistics Advisor | [email protected]
Krish Rai | Graduate Student Intern | [email protected]
Krish received a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering from UC Irvine and is currently pursuing an MS in Health Data Science at UCSF, scheduled to graduate in 2025. In spring 2024, he joined the Patterson Lab to pursue clinical research and is currently a member of the DREAMER Study team. Krish's role in the DREAMER study has focused on patient interaction, data collection, data analysis, and presentation of survey findings to the study team. He hopes to integrate the various analytical, clinical, and research skills acquired at UCSF into a medical career.