Louise Aronson

Following the success of her first novel, Aronson was encouraged by her editor to write a non-fictional account of medicine and aging. As a result, she wrote her second book titled Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life which included her own personal experiences in the medical field and confronting her parents aging. Aronson was named a 2019 Influencer in Aging and 2019–2020 Humanism in Aging Leadership Award winner. In 2020, Aronson's book was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

In late 2006, Aronson accepted a position as an academic physician in the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) health sciences campus. In her early years at the school, she received their Medical Education Research Fellowship and their 2011 Cooke Award for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. From 2010 until 2016, she was a member of UCSF's Academy of Medical Educators. During this time, she was also awarded an Arnold P. Gold Foundation Professorship for her project Fostering Humanism through Critical Reflection and Narrative Advocacy. Her research developed into her first novel titled A History of the Present Illness, a collection of fictional stories that explore the nature of medicine and humanity. When asked why she chose to write a fictional story, Aronson replied "By using fiction, I could take 20 years of experience and tell a story in the way I felt was most effective and draw from a whole array of real patients and people."

Louise Aronson (born 1963) is an American geriatrician, writer, and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Her book Elderhood: Redefining Aging, Transforming Medicine, Reimagining Life was a finalist for the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.