Two patients. Same age. Same surgery. One bounces back in days; the other never quite returns to baseline. Hospital Medicine physician Sarita Khemani, MD, spent years wondering why, and that question became the foundation for STRIVE, Stanford’s new initiative advancing the science of physiological reserve: the body’s capacity to withstand stress, adapt, and recover.

Ashley Styczynski, MD, investigates the burden and drivers of drug-resistant microbes across six countries after witnessing alarming rates of resistant infections among newborns in Bangladesh.

AI is poised to transform medicine — but how do you teach new residents to use it without weakening the skills that make them good doctors? Poonam Hosamani, MD, and Kevin Keet, MD, have built a curriculum that takes that question seriously, weaving AI literacy into residency training from day one. Their approach has just earned them the 2026 Outstanding Graduate Medical Education Contributions Award.

Valley fever infections are rising across California, and many patients still struggle to find a doctor who specializes in treating it. Stanford’s dedicated Valley Fever Clinic is changing that, combining specialized care with active research into a fungal disease that has been chronically underfunded and understudied.

Every year, 350,000 people go into cardiac arrest outside a hospital. Most don’t survive, often because no one nearby knows what to do. Administrative Specialist Tawny Bagnol decided to change that for her Cardiovascular Medicine colleagues, launching a hands-only CPR training program on the belief that anyone, with the right knowledge, can save a life.

For the first time, Stanford has performed an islet cell transplant that could change how type 1 diabetes is treated. Endocrinologist Marina Basina, MD, explains what made it possible, and what it means for patients who have spent a lifetime managing a disease that may one day be curable.

Pancreatic cancer has long resisted treatment, in part because its cells are so good at protecting themselves. Stanford physician-scientist Steven Corsello, MD, is developing a new class of drugs, called molecular glues, that flip that survival mechanism against the cancer itself, forcing cells to destroy the very proteins they need to grow.

Ten years in, the PRIDE Study has become one of the most comprehensive efforts to understand LGBTQIA+ health in the United States. Annesa Flentje looks back at what the data has revealed about trauma, resilience, and what it takes to build science that a community actually trusts.

Stanford physician Lekha Mikkilineni, MD, is advancing a new type of CAR T-cell therapy — engineered entirely from human cells — that has given some patients with multiple myeloma years of remission and new hope for a life free from ongoing treatment.

For patients with early digestive tract cancers, surgery has long been the default — but it doesn’t have to be. Stanford gastroenterologist Naohisa Yahagi, MD, PhD, is expanding access to endoscopic submucosal dissection, a minimally invasive technique that removes tumors without cutting open the body.

Mukta Awasthi, MD, leads a VA program that brings veterans’ personal stories into their care, helping clinicians see the whole person behind the medical chart.

When Alisha Hernandez needed a liver transplant, the path to getting one was anything but simple. Before she could be listed, she faced a demanding evaluation process — one that has historically meant long drives and logistical hurdles for patients far from Palo Alto. The Stanford Liver Transplant Program at Tri-Valley is changing that, bringing the full evaluation closer to home for East Bay patients who can’t afford to wait.

Every day, more than 1,000 staff members keep Stanford’s Department of Medicine running, in roles that rarely make the front page. In this special tribute, inspired by Humans of New York, four of them share the winding paths, defining moments, and quiet beliefs that brought them here. What emerges is something unexpected: a portrait of a department defined not only by its science, but also by the people who have made it their life’s work.