Louise Walter

Louise Walter is a Professor at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine, Department of Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Geriatrics at UCSF and the San Francisco VA Health Care System (SFVAHCS). As a clinician-researcher and international leader in cancer screening for older adults, her work focuses on life expectancy modeling, frailty assessment, and individualized clinical decision-making.

• Stanford University (B.S., Biology, 1990)
• Stanford University School of Medicine (M.D., Internal Medicine, 1995)
• UCSF Advanced Training in Clinical Research Program (Certificate, Clinical Epidemiology, 1999)

Her research pioneered methodologies demonstrating that life expectancy—not age alone—should guide cancer screening decisions. This work underpins modern clinical guidelines, with her 2014 JAMA article recognized as one of 27 landmark geriatrics publications. She also developed a taxonomy of screening harms and applied it to procedures like chemotherapy and surgery in frail patients.

Recent publications span geriatric syndromes, aging in place, and patient-centered care for conditions like urinary incontinence and lung cancer. Her studies increasingly emphasize multidisciplinary approaches, social determinants of health, and pragmatic clinical trials.

• UCSF Academic Senate Distinction in Mentoring Award (2010)
• Elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) (2012)
• NIH Midcareer Mentoring Award for Patient-Oriented Research in Aging (2011–2019)
• NIH R01CA134425: Prostate-Specific Antigen Practices and Outcomes in the Elderly (2009–2015)
• Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (2016)

Dr. Walter leads the Tideswell at UCSF mentoring center for aging researchers and directs the SFVAHCS Geriatrics Clinic. She has mentored numerous scholars and shaped national guidelines through her translational work in geriatric oncology and preventive care.