About the Speaker

Dr. Donald I. Abrams, MD, is Chief of the Hematology‑Oncology Division at San Francisco General Hospital and a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. He also practices Integrative Oncology at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. He earned his AB in Molecular Biology from Brown University and his MD from Stanford, followed by an Internal Medicine residency at Kaiser San Francisco and a Hematology/Oncology fellowship at UCSF’s Cancer Research Institute.

Dr. Abrams was among the first clinician‑investigators to identify and characterize early AIDS‑related conditions. His long-standing research interests include clinical trials of complementary and alternative medicine interventions for HIV/AIDS and cancer, with a major focus on medicinal cannabis. In 1997, he received NIDA funding to study the short‑term safety of cannabinoids in HIV, followed by support from the UC Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research to evaluate cannabis across multiple clinical conditions. He completed a placebo‑controlled trial of smoked cannabis for HIV‑related peripheral neuropathy and a study assessing vaporization as a smokeless delivery system. He also led a NIDA‑funded trial examining interactions between vaporized cannabis and opioid analgesics in chronic pain.

Dr. Abrams is currently conducting an NIH‑funded study of vaporized cannabis in patients with sickle cell disease. He co‑authored the “Cannabinoids and Cancer” chapter in the Oxford University Press Integrative Oncology text, which he co‑edited with Andrew Weil, and co‑edits the NCI PDQ CAM Cannabinoids and Cancer website. He also serves as a scientific advisor to several cannabinoid‑based pharmaceutical companies.

How to participate

The class will become available about 30 minutes prior to the start of the presentation. During this time, you should ensure that you have the Zoom client installed and working.

To install Zoom, click on the link for your operating system:
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How to get your Participation Certificate

After the presentation, return to this course to take the post-lecture quiz. The quiz will consist of information that was presented during the session and should not be difficult if you watched the presentation. Once you finish and pass the quiz, mark the course as complete. Your certificate will be available for download as a PDF file upon completion.

You can always return to your profile to view and download your certificates.