Department:

Internal Medicine

Specialty:

Internal Medicine, Board Certified

Open to new internal medicine patients. Closed to new pain management patients.

Health plans accepted:

View accepted health plans

Affiliation:

Palo Alto Medical Foundation

Education/training:

Medical education:

 

University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Internship:

UCSF, Primary Care Internal Medicine

Residency:

UCSF, Primary Care Internal Medicine

Professional interests:

Chronic pain, neurobiology, cognitive science and complementary medicine

Additional languages spoken:

Spanish(Fluent)

Community activities:

Dr.Thompson worked for two years with a spine institute assisting patients with chronic pain. She has been an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF, working with primary care medicine residents since 1986. She is a member of the American College of Physicians, Alpha Omega Alpha and UCSF Clinical Faculty Association.

Personal interests:

Dr.Thompson is married with two sons and two granddaughters. She has done aikido shodan and a three-year training in somatic education and awareness through movement. Prior to becoming a physician, she completed all but her dissertation for a Ph.D. in Asian Studies with a focus on Chinese and Japanese intellectual history.

Physician web link:

http://www.pamf.org/internal

Philosophy of care:

I was an ABD (all but dissertation) in Asian Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. I realized that I did not want to pursue an academic track, but rather wanted to be of direct service to people. I thought about nursing since I had been interested in holistic health and women's health, but my husband encouraged me to go to medical school. I changed course, completed my premed requirements, and went to Catholic University of Puerto Rico, which had a newly accredited medical school to train family practitioners. I transferred to the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) in 1980 to complete my training. I joined the UCSF primary care residency medicine program because of its emphasis on integrating intensive training in both outpatient and hospital medicine with behavioral medicine training, which focused on counseling patients in health education, emotional issues relating to aging, interpersonal conflict, marital issues, sexuality and coping with chronic illness.

When I started aikido, I became interested in mind-body and complementary medicine. I completed a three-year somatic education training that focused on awareness through movement and Feldenkrais work. I also completed a training program in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. I am interested in cognitive science and neurobiology, in particular, current research in the neurobiology of pain, neuroplasticity and multidisciplinary treatment of chronic pain.