Arpan A. Patel, MD

Dr. Patel earned his bachelor of science at Pennsylvania State University and received his medical degree from Jefferson Medical College, where he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded membership in Alpha Omega Alpha (AOA) and the Gold Humanism Honor Society (GHHS). He completed his internship and residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania before beginning his fellowship training at the Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases at UCLA in 2014.

During fellowship, Dr. Patel joined the UCLA Specialty Training and Advanced Research (STAR) and the NRSA (National Research Service Award) T32 Primary Care Research Fellowship programs through the Department of Medicine. This support allowed him to complete a PhD in health policy and management through the Fielding School of Public Health at UCLA in 2020. Dr. Patel joined the faculty at the UCLA Vatche and Tamar Manoukian Division of Digestive Diseases as assistant clinical professor of medicine.

Dr. Patel’s research focuses on describing, measuring and improving the quality of palliative care delivered to patients with serious liver-related illnesses, as well as its effect on their caregivers. He has particular interests in improving communication regarding goals of care, caregiver burden, symptom management and end of life care. He also has a secondary interest in improving the delivery of alcohol use disorder care for patients with alcohol-associated liver disease. His sources of research funding include the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, Veterans Health Administration, National Palliative Care Research Consortium, National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, and National Institute of Minority and Health Disparities. Dr. Patel’s research has been published in a number of journals, including JAMA Internal Medicine, Annals of Internal Medicine, Hepatology, Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Gastroenterology, Liver Transplantation, Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, and Digestive Diseases and Sciences. He currently serves as vice chair of the Public Health and Healthcare Delivery Special Interest Group in AASLD.