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Louise C. Walter, M.D.,
 Louise C. Walter, MD
Division of Geriatrics
San Francisco VA Medical Center
San Francisco, CA
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Louise C. Walter, M.D., completed her undergraduate work in Biology at Stanford University in 1990 and completed her medical training at Stanford University School of Medicine in 1995. She went to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) for residency in internal medicine, which she completed in 1998, and remained at UCSF for her geriatrics research fellowship, which she completed in 2001. She currently is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in Geriatrics at UCSF and has been a staff physician at the San Francisco VA (SFVAMC) since 2001.
Dr. Walter's major research interest is cancer screening in older persons. In her earlier work she developed a conceptual framework to guide cancer screening decisions in older persons in a more sensible way than the conventional use of age cutoff guidelines. Her approach involves estimates of life expectancy, risk of cancer death, screening outcomes, and discussion of patient preferences. This framework forms the basis for much of her ongoing research, which is currently focused on how health status affects the use and outcomes of cancer screening in older persons.
Dr. Walter continues her clinical work in the SFVAMC Geriatrics Clinic, and continues coursework in measurement of disease severity and quality of life.
Dr. Walter's recent publications include "Cancer Screening in Elderly Patients: A Framework for Individualized Decision Making" (JAMA 2001; 285:2750-56); "Relationship between Health Status and Use of Screening Mammography and Papanicolaou Smears among Women Older than 70 Years" (Ann Intern Med. 2004;140:681-688); "Pitfalls of Converting Practice Guidelines into Quality Measures: Lessons Learned from a VA Performance Measure" (JAMA 2004;291:2466-2470); and "PSA Screening Among Elderly Men with Limited Life Expectancies"(JAMA 2006;296:2336-2342).
Dr. Walter's mentors are Kenneth Covinsky, M.D. M.P.H, and Seth Landefeld, M.D., who are both nationally known health services researchers.
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