Susan Schneider, MD

Experience

Dr. Susan Schneider is a board-certified geriatrician, hospice and palliative medicine physician, and Mind Body Medicine physician with more than 25 years of experience caring for older adults across outpatient medicine, home visits, hospital medicine and academic medicine. Her clinical and educational work focuses on helping older adults optimize health, resilience, cognitive function, and quality of life through evidence-based integrative approaches to aging.

Prior to joining UCSF, she practiced in Florida across multiple settings of care and served as Program Director of the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at the University of Florida College of Medicine, the Medical Director of UF Outpatient Senior Care, and Inpatient Geriatric Medicine Consult Service at UF Health Shands Hospital.

At UCSF, Dr. Schneider serves as a clinician educator and currently chairs the UCSF Geriatric Medicine Clinical Competence Committee. Her clinical work includes geriatric consultation services, healthy aging and precision aging initiatives, interdisciplinary education, and collaboration with the San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living. She is actively involved in developing innovative models of specialty geriatric consultation and advancing care for older adults with complex medical needs.

Dr. Schneider combines expertise in geriatric and palliative medicine with advanced training through the Center for Mind-Body Medicine, where she completed professional certification in mindfulness, guided imagery, breathwork, expressive writing, stress physiology, trauma-informed healing, and group facilitation. Her interests include healthy aging, chronic pain, cognitive health, caregiver support, resilience, lifestyle medicine, music and arts in healing, and innovative care delivery models, including telehealth group visits.

She also collaborates on aging and resilience research through the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and explores the thoughtful integration of artificial intelligence into patient-centered care, education, and communication while preserving the human connection that remains central to healing.

Dr. Schneider is passionate about helping older adults and their caregivers navigate the challenges and opportunities of aging with compassion, curiosity, and hope. She believes that the future of healthy aging lies in integrating the best of modern medicine with mind-body practices, lifestyle approaches, creativity, community connection, and personalized care.

Education and Training

• MD, Univeristy of Missouri School of Medicine-Kansas City
• Residency, Columbia University

Personal Statement and Approach

I believe every person's aging journey is unique. My goal is to partner with patients and families to cultivate resilience, optimize well-being, and create individualized approaches that support health, meaning, and quality of life throughout the aging process. It's never too late!