Faculty Spotlight: Paul Cornia

Dr. Paul Cornia received his medical degree from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in 1996. He completed his internal medicine training in 1999 here at the University of Washington (UW), followed by a year as chief resident.

Paul joined the faculty at UW in 2000 and in 2004 was appointed to assistant professor in the clinician-scholar pathway and associate professor in 2009. Cornia was appointed as the section chief, hospital medicine (VA Puget Sound) section in 2013. In 2020, Cornia was also appointed as Section Head, Division of General Internal Medicine for the VA Section of Hospital Medicine.

A celebrated leader, his colleagues have described him as “a paragon of professionalism and grace under pressure” and “...calm, caring and pragmatic in handling the uncountable number of issues facing our group and hospital.” 

Cornia’s scholarship is far-reaching. He has authored several chapters in The Perioperative Medicine Consult Handbook, and collaborated on numerous original perioperative research studies, including on the impact of low health literacy on surgical practice and more recently on the perioperative management of patients with cirrhosis. He has various publications in the New England Journal of Medicine Clinical-Problem Solving series and the JAMA Rational Clinical Exam series, and in 2017, Cornia was recognized by the Editors of UpToDate of as one best authors in Infectious Diseases.

Cornia strives for continuous practice-based learning and improvement and serves on numerous hospital committees focused quality assurance and in 2021 he received a VA Puget Sound Practitioner Lead in Quality and Safety Award. In the same year he was recognized by Seattle Met magazine as a Top Doctor in Internal Medicine.

Cornia is an exceptional leader, clinician, scholar and teacher.  His innovative work in medical education and hospital and perioperative medicine has attracted national attention.

He is a celebrated clinician, and esteemed leader, describe by one of his faculty as “an outstanding hospitalist and leader of our group. I have been so impressed by how he balances his commitment to patient care, scholarship, and mentorship of our group.”