Remembering Christopher Barton, MD

It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Christopher Barton, who died unexpectedly at his home in San Clemente, California on Friday, January 15th, 2021.

Born Christopher Ward Barton in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania on February 22nd, 1954, he graduated from medical school at UCSF in 1980 and joined the faculty in 1999. Early in his career, Chris focused his research on mathematical modeling of ventricular arrhythmias, and he led some of the notable and transformative work in this area. He was appointed as interim Chief of Emergency Medicine at San Francisco General in 2008 and was later named Chief in 2010.

Chris played a significant role in many important events in Emergency Medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center (ZSFG) and UCSF, including the establishment of the Department of Emergency Medicine at UCSF in 2008 and the design of and transition to our new hospital and emergency department at ZSFG, which was completed in 2016. He made the decision to purchase the first electronic medical record, patient tracking and provider order system in the hospital and ED (PulseCheck). He purchased the first ED ultrasound machine, which launched the ZSFG ED ultrasound program, and he also implemented the first ED scribe program at ZSFG.

Chris retired from UCSF as a Professor Emeritus in 2016. Since stepping down as Chief, he leveraged his expertise in medicine and informatics to develop machine learning algorithms in sepsis and other conditions, using big data for clinical prediction models. Chris was always meticulous with details, had a fondness for natural beauty and was dedicated to making things better for our department. He was a brilliant thinker and true scientist, always eager to learn and explore new ways to understand our world, and over the course of his career, made many significant contributions to our specialty.

Chris loved photography and shared his eye for beauty in the world with all of us. He had a particular fondness for photographing nature with Yosemite being one of his favorite landscapes to capture. He enjoyed using antique photography equipment, was an exhibitor at art shows and marketed his work of nature scenes on stationary greeting cards. Examples of his impressive photographs are included.

Chris enjoyed the simple pleasures of numbers and nature. We will miss him greatly and appreciate the impact he left upon all of us. On behalf of the Department, we would like to extend our sincerest condolences to his family, friends, and close colleagues.

Contributions can be made in his name to the San Francisco General Hospital Foundation or to the Yosemite Conservancy. In addition, the Department is compiling comments, memories and photographs to share with Dr. Barton’s family. Please send any items you would like for us to include to Eve Dinh ([email protected]).

Sincerely,
Peter E. Sokolove, MD, FACEP
Professor and Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine

Christopher B. Colwell, MD, FACEP
Chief of Emergency Medicine
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center
Professor and Vice Chair
Department of Emergency Medicine

Malini K Singh, MD, MPH, MBA
Vice Chief of Emergency Medicine
Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center
Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine