Margaret

Isaac

MD

FACP

biography

Dr. Isaac is a primary care general internist and palliative medicine physician who practices at Harborview Medical Center. Her clinical interests include caring for marginalized communities, patient-centered care, patient-physician communication, chronic disease management, and holistic care that centers patients' values and goals in their medical decision-making. She is deeply committed to medical education and teaches both pre-clinical and clinical-phase medical students core clinical skills, including communication and history-taking, physical examination, and clinical reasoning.  

Education & Training

• MD, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA (1998–2003)
• Internship and Residency in Internal Medicine, Primary Care Track, UCSF San Francisco General Hospital, San Francisco, CA (2003–2006)
• Fellowship, Hospice and Palliative Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, CA (2007)

Honors

• Fellow, American College of Physicians (2018)
• UW School of Medicine Clinical Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award (2014, 2017, and 2018)
• Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award, Gold Humanism Honor Society (2014)

publication highlights

• Isaac M, Curtis JR. How to respond to an ICU patient asking if they are going to die. Intensive Care Med; 2017 Feb; 43(2): 220-222.
• Isaac ML, Creutzfeld C. “Sudden Acute Brain Injury.” In Neuropalliative Care: A Guide to Improving the Lives of Patients and Families Affected by Neurologic Disease (Creutzfeld CJ, Kluger BM, Holloway RG, eds.), Springer; 1st edition, 2019. 
• Molnar A, Isaac ML. “Palliative and End-of-Life Care”; in Refugee Health Care (Annamalai A, ed.); 2nd edition, Springer, pp 181-192, 2019. 
• Isaac M, Curtis JR. Palliative Care Issues in the ICU, In: UpToDate, Parsons PE, Block SD (ed.), UpToDate, Waltham, MA, 2012, revised 2014, 2016, 2018, 2020.