Paula Aristizabal, M.D., M.A.S.

Bio

Dr. Paula Aristizabal is a hematologist-oncologist at Rady Children's Hospital-San Diego and an assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at UC San Diego.

Dr. Aristizabal completed her medical degree and pediatrics residency in Colombia, her home country. She continued her medical education with a fellowship in pediatric hematology and oncology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. She recently also earned a Master of Advanced Studies in clinical research at UC San Diego.

In her clinical work at the Peckham Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, Dr. Aristizabal specializes in the care of children with cancer and blood disorders, with an emphasis on leukemia, lymphoma and histiocytic disorders. She has also been the director of Rady Children's International Outreach Program since 2008 and has partnered with St. Jude Children's Research Hospital to lead efforts to establish pediatric oncology programs in resource-constrained settings, including Tijuana and La Paz, Mexico.

Dr. Aristizabal's research interests include ethics and patient-provider communication, with a focus on discovering the causes of pediatric cancer disparities and developing strategies to better serve patients, including those from underserved communities. She is a member of the UC San Diego Clinical and Translational Research Institute and the UC San Diego Moores Cancer Center Reducing Cancer Disparities Program. Dr. Aristizabal has also received research grant funding from various organizations, including the National Cancer Institute, the American Cancer Society and Hyundai Hope on Wheels. She publishes her work in peer-reviewed journals and presents her work at both national and international meetings.

Dr. Aristizabal is fluent in Spanish.

Publications

Participation in pediatric oncology research protocols: Racial/ethnic, language and age-based disparities
Aristizabal, P, Singer, J, Cooper, R, Wells, KJ, Nodora, J, Milburn, M, Gahagan, S, Schiff, DE, Martinez, ME

Improving pediatric cancer care disparities across the United States-Mexico border: Lessons learned from a transcultural partnership between San Diego and Tijuana
Aristizabal, P, Fuller, S, Rivera, R, Beyda, D, Ribeiro, RC, Roberts, W

Factors associated with surgical management in an underinsured, safety net population
Winton, LM, Nodora, JN, Martinez, ME, Hsu, CH, Djenic, B, Aristizabal, P, Ferguson, EM, Weiss, BD, Komenaka, IK

Preoperative presentation of a variant of cerebellar mutism syndrome in a young boy with juvenile pilocytic astrocytoma
Chen, DY, Aristizabal, P, Crawford, JR

Temporal dynamics of inflammatory cytokines/chemokines during sofosbuvir and ribavirin therapy for genotype 2 and 3 hepatitis C infection
Carlin, AF, Aristizabal, P, Song, Q, Wang, H, Paulson, MS, Stamm, LM, Schooley, RT, Wyles, DL

Descriptive epidemiology of childhood cancer in Cali: Colombia 1977-2011
Bravo, LE, García, LS, Collazos, P, Aristizabal, P, Ramirez, O