Matthew Growdon
Thesis Title: Ford Madox Ford and the Wartime Mind
What Now: Geriatrician and Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
What Next: Improving the quality and safety of prescribing for older adults with cognitive impairment and social vulnerability
I vividly recall agonizing over my choice of concentration, feeling that I would be torn apart by seemingly disparate interests in the humanities and medicine. Fortunately, History and Literature proved to be a fertile environment in which to combine these interdisciplinary interests. In tutorials and seminars, I studied diverse topics from the incipient public health movement of 18th-century America to the early 20th-century debate surrounding shell shock and wartime mental illness, the topic of my senior thesis. These experiences situated my premedical coursework in a rich historical context, encouraging me to approach the practice of modern medicine with an open mind and an abiding humanity. Strong writing, editing, and communication skills; contextual and nuanced thinking; and an appreciation for how people document the human experience through media such as literature, art, language, and history—these are just a few examples of invaluable skills from History and Literature that have guided my career in medicine.
Read More:
- "Medication Management Among Older Adults Living Alone With Cognitive Impairment," co-authored with Krista L. Harrison, and Michael A. Steinman, JAMA Internal Medicine (May 26, 2026)
- "Decision-Making and Downstream Outcomes of the Gabapentinoid-Diuretic Prescribing Cascade," co-authored with Natalie Tjota and Rachel Campbell, JAMA Network Open (December 2, 2025)
- "Polypharmacy among older adults with dementia compared with those without dementia in the United States," co-authored with Siqi Gan, Kristine Yaffe, and Michael A. Steinman, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (June 2021)
- "Potential Medicare Savings From Generic Substitution and Therapeutic Interchange of ACE Inhibitors and Angiotensin-II-Receptor Blockers," co-authored with Chana A. Sacks, Aaron S. Kesselheim, and Jerry Avorn, JAMA International Medicine (December 2019)