A Conversation with Jules Vieaux, MD 

Tell me about yourself. Where were you born and raised? I’ve been told medicine was not your first career. Please tell me more.

I am originally from upstate New York—Poughkeepsie, to be exact—where I was born and raised. I went to school in Ithaca, NY at Cornell University, where I majored in Economics. After college, I worked in advertising in both New York City and San Francisco for fifteen years.

I’m an only child, and my mom still lives in the same house I grew up in.

I moved to San Francisco in 1998 when advertising was booming, and SF was the place to be. Just three months later, my father was diagnosed with lung cancer back in Poughkeepsie.  Over the next five years, I traveled back and forth frequently to be with him and my mom through his treatments. Along the way, I saw the incredible work being done by the clinicians caring for him. At the end of each visit, I would get back on a plane to fly home to San Francisco and write PowerPoint presentations for work to sell a printer, a credit card, or an airline service.  Though my job was good, it didn’t have the meaning for which I yearned.

After my father died in 2002, I kept working in advertising, volunteering with a hospice to find some additional purpose beyond my daytime profession. I also got married, bought a house in Alameda, and my wife Krista and I started our family with our first son Anders in 2006. But my desire for additional meaning continued, and I decided I to leave advertising and become a nurse.

I started with General Chemistry 1A at Berkeley City College while Anders was in daycare.  I soon learned one needs more prerequisites for nursing school than medical school, which helped broaden my perspective. Our family continued to grow when our second son Chase was born in 2009. Ultimately, I was honored to be accepted into UC Davis Medical School the next year.

We continued to live in Alameda and I commuted to UC Davis in Sacramento through medical school, taking an extra year to complete my MD degree which allowed time with family and a bit of research on Advance Care Planning. When I wasn’t attending classes, I was as involved as possible as a Little League coach for my boys.  Thankfully, I matched much closer to home at Kaiser Oakland for Internal Medicine residency.

Why Palliative Medicine?

Initially, I was leaning toward oncology as a career, as it seemed to present the opportunity to be a primary care doctor for people going through really serious times in their lives. Then I learned more about palliative care and realized, There are so many other diseases besides cancer, and I can still have a deep impact on people’s lives in different ways. By the end of medical school, I transitioned my focus to palliative care, which continued through residency.

After residency, I worked as a primary care physician at Kaiser while taking some time to reflect. Then, I was honored to be accepted into UCSF’s fellowship program. It was actually the sixth time I had applied to UCSF, and I finally got in!

I’ve been asked before, so I’d like to get it right and set the record straight. How do you pronounce your last name?

It’s Vee-O, so it rhymes with Bordeaux. I believe it’s French Canadian.

I personally would like to hear more about your passion for education. I’ve worked with you, and you always welcome learners into your clinic. Where does this come from?

It’s interesting—I earned a degree in economics from Cornell, yet I managed to graduate without taking a single science class (thank you AP exams!). When I started planning to apply to medical school, I was either too independent (or maybe too frugal!) to take a traditional pre-med baccalaureate program, so I took self-directed classes at local community colleges.

That experience really struck me. I met so many students who were doing incredible work while also balancing jobs and family responsibilities. It gave me a better appreciation of what great work and teaching happens in the community college system—something I hadn’t fully recognized while I was at Cornell. It got me excited.

Throughout medical school, I was involved in programs aimed at helping students from diverse backgrounds at community colleges gain visibility into what programs like medical school could be like. I’ve always enjoyed hearing students’ stories, and I truly respect the journey so many of them take.

We also know there simply aren’t enough palliative care clinicians who share enough similar experiences with the for whom patients we care. So, if I can spark even a little interest in medicine—especially palliative care—I think it’s a great thing to do.

Let’s do a quickfire round of this-or-that questions.

Burgers or tacos? Taco burgers!
Going out or staying in? Staying in.
No internet or no running water? No internet.
Coffee or sweets? Coffee.
Domestic travel or international travel? What’s travel?! International, when I can.
Physical book or e-book? Physical book.

What are some of your favorite hobbies?

I’ve spent a lot of the past few winters skiing at Heavenly in South Lake Tahoe with my 18-year-old son.

I really, really enjoy New Orleans food and jazz music. There’s a great radio station, WWOZ, that streams online. Their Monday night show is fantastic. I’ve been to Jazz Fest six times.

I love cooking!  Ask me about my slow cooker …

Once upon a time, I used to play golf. I actually worked at a golf course from ages 14 to 20—summers while I was in school. If I had found myself in my late 20s without much of a career, I kind of figured I’d just go teach golf.

For the last year, I have been more intentional about walking our dog Pepper at the end of the day.  Gives me a chance to decompress, and often catch a sunset.