Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Ron Goldschmidt, MD

“Ron has created an incomparable living organism that exists to this day. It exemplifies Family Medicine as love in action.” - George Saba, PhD, Emeritus Professor, UCSF Department of Family and Community Medicine

Ron Goldschmidt MD, beloved UC San Francisco professor of Family Medicine, founding director of the Family Medicine Inpatient Service at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (ZSFGH), and co-founder of the National Clinician’s Consultation Center, died peacefully on July 22 surrounded by his family after a courageous battle with cancer.

Over a 50-year career at UCSF based at ZSFGH, Dr. Goldschmidt was a consummate family physician clinician, educator, and program leader, championing a model of family and community medicine rooted in a philosophy of interconnectedness and public service. His teaching and mentorship launched the careers of hundreds of family physicians. He was one of the nation’s foremost advocates for the role of family physicians in caring for patients living with HIV infection, directing a federally funded program that enabled thousands of primary care clinicians across the county to receive free expert guidance on HIV care.

In 1973, just three years after the specialty of Family Medicine was established, Dr. Goldschmidt joined UCSF as one of the first residents at the newly created Family Practice Residency Program at ZSFGH that served as a foundation for developing the UCSF Department of Family & Community Medicine in the School of Medicine. After joining the faculty, Dr. Goldschmidt created the Family Medicine Inpatient Service at ZSFGH in 1978 to address curricular needs for training family physicians in acute hospital care and the need for better coordination between hospital services and the primary care clinicians providing community-based longitudinal care for patients who were hospitalized. The Family Medicine Inpatient Service was one of the first of its kind at an academic health center and soon became nationally renowned.

In 1980, Dr. Goldschmidt and the Family Medicine Inpatient Service team cared for a patient with a then rare condition—Kaposi’s Sarcoma. In retrospect, it was recognized that this patient was one of the first San Franciscans to have AIDS.  Within a few years, half of the patients on the Family Medicine Inpatient Service would be gay men with advanced AIDS. As programs at ZSFGH and UCSF became national authorities on AIDS, Dr. Goldschmidt recognized the need to share this knowledge with community-based clinicians across the country. In 1993, Dr. Goldschmidt co-founded the National Clinicians’ Consultation Center (NCCC) housed at ZSFGH. The only advice center of its kind in the nation, the NCCC has received continuous federal funding for more than 30 years to provide free remote consultations on managing HIV/AIDS, perinatal HIV, pre-exposure prophylaxis, and bloodborne pathogen exposures.

In February 2024, Dr. Goldschmidt’s colleagues gathered to celebrate his retirement and share stories of the creation of the Family Medicine Inpatient Service—fondly dubbed “FMIS”—and their experiences during the devastating early years of the AIDS epidemic. During the event, Dr. Goldschmidt remarked that when he left SFGH each day, he was “often supercharged with our mission accomplished for the day and for the mission in progress. I thought we share enormous respect for our patients and that comes out in all of our discussions with their families and the community. It's our version of shared patriotism. We have a special patriotism. We do a tough job really, really well and on FMIS it shows. It always has...It has been personally rewarding beyond description to be able to provide care and to guide residents and students to be part of such a dynamic department.”

Dr. Goldschmidt published some 100 original articles and editorials in medical literature, many on the primary care of HIV. He loved playing jazz piano, working in his garden, refereeing soccer, making bad Dad jokes, and cheering on San Francisco sports teams. He is survived by his wife Cathy, his sons Daniel and Joel, his two grandchildren, and his sister Linda.