Dr. Sarah Sedke is By the Bay Health’s newest palliative care physician. She was born and raised on the East Coast, where she received her medical degree from Columbia University and then completed her residency in Internal Medicine at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center.
Sedke then accepted a fellowship at UCSF Health in San Francisco, where she decided to stay. She joined the faculty of the UCSF Division of Palliative Medicine and practiced outpatient palliative care at the UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center.
Back in high school and undergraduate studies, she developed an interest in medicine while serving as a hospice volunteer during the summers. Asked about her philosophy on medical care, Sedke noted that in medical school she developed an interest in harm reduction through community work with needle exchange, “I think, in many ways, that philosophy aligns really beautifully with hospice and palliative medicine. This idea that we take patients and families where they are, and support them in that journey… I think that prior experience with harm reduction really helps me be a better doctor overall but, in particular, a better palliative care physician.”
She adds, “I really thrive on relationships. Building and curating relationships with patients and families, as well as with colleagues… I have found, especially with the Covid pandemic, that that relationship piece, that connection has felt especially important.”
On a personal note, Sedke found love on the West Coast and is now “the very proud and tired” mother a five-month-old and a proponent of Maryland cuisine, where she grew up, boasting “I’m the first to tell you that Maryland blue crabs are the best seafood on either coast!”
Welcome, Dr. Sedke!