Dr. Elizabeth Phelan, MD
Not yet claimedGeriatrician, Preventive cardiologist, Internal medicine doctor · Physician (MD)
Seattle, WA
Dr. Elizabeth Phelan is a geriatrics doctor in Seattle who started and directs the Fall Prevention Clinic at Harborview Medical Center. She teaches at the University of Washington and studies ways to keep older adults safe from falls and to improve dementia care.
About Dr. Elizabeth Phelan, MD
Updated Sep 20, 2026 · next review Dec 19, 2026Dr. Elizabeth A. Phelan is a geriatrician and internal medicine doctor at UW Medicine in Seattle. She is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington, an Adjunct Professor of Health Services, and sees patients in both hospital and clinic settings. She earned her MD at Tufts University School of Medicine in 1992 and a master's degree in health services at the University of Washington in 1998.
She founded the Fall Prevention Clinic at Harborview Medical Center, which has run since 2005, and much of her work focuses on preventing falls and injuries in older adults. She helped develop the CDC's STEADI fall-prevention toolkit for providers and co-authored American Geriatrics Society papers on updating STEADI for primary care and responding to the World Falls Guidelines.
Her research also looks at reducing or stopping medications that act on the brain and nervous system, which can raise fall risk. She was senior author of the STOP-FALLS clinical trial and leads a related study in older adults with dementia. She also directs the Northwest Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Center, which trains health workers who care for older adults.
In the CMS Open Payments database for 2021 through 2025, no industry payments are recorded for her (0 records, $0). Industry payments to doctors are common and legal; this simply means none were reported.
- Geriatrics and internal medicine
- A directory listing reports she is board certified in internal medicine and geriatric medicine, and her UW page describes her as a fellowship-trained geriatrician who practices in both inpatient and outpatient settings. geriatrics.uw.edu
- Founded fall prevention clinic
- She is the founding director of the Fall Prevention Clinic at Harborview Medical Center, which has operated continuously since 2005. geriatrics.uw.edu
- Fall prevention guideline work
- She co-authored the American Geriatrics Society workgroup recommendations on updating the STEADI fall-prevention program for primary care, and the paper lists her as declaring no conflicts of interest. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- World Falls Guidelines response
- She co-authored the American Geriatrics Society response to the World Falls Guidelines, published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society in December 2023. agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
- Medication deprescribing research
- She was senior author of STOP-FALLS, a randomized trial testing whether reducing central nervous system-active medications prevents falls and injuries in older adults. health.usnews.com
- Dementia deprescribing study
- She is principal investigator of STOP-FALLS-D, an NIA IMPACT Collaboratory pilot with Kaiser Permanente Washington on deprescribing to reduce injurious falls in people with dementia. impactcollaboratory.org
- Geriatrics workforce training
- She is Project Director of the Northwest Geriatrics Workforce Enhancement Center, which received a five-year renewal from HRSA and is co-directed with Michael V. Vitiello, PhD. psychiatry.uw.edu
- Hospital affiliations
- She is affiliated with UW Medicine/Harborview Medical Center and UW Medicine/University of Washington Medical Center. health.usnews.com
- Research appointments
- She is an affiliate investigator at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and a member of the UW Health Promotion Research Center. hspop.uw.edu
- No industry payments reported
- CMS Open Payments shows $0 across 0 records for 2021 through 2025. openpaymentsdata.cms.gov
Worth knowing
- Some directory listings label her a preventive cardiologist. No source found supports a cardiology specialty or credential; her documented specialties are internal medicine and geriatric medicine. geriatrics.uw.edu
- A WebMD directory page states she has '45 years of experience,' which does not match her 1992 medical degree and appears to be a directory data error. doctor.webmd.com
- No verified personal social media accounts were found, and two LinkedIn profiles named Elizabeth Phelan connected to the University of Washington could not be confirmed as hers. geriatrics.uw.edu
Industry payments (CMS Open Payments)
Open the CMS recordFederal law requires drug and device companies to report what they pay clinicians: meals, travel, speaking, consulting, and research. Payments are common and legal; the point is that you can see them.
No general payments reported for this NPI from 2021 through 2025.
Sources: geriatrics.uw.edu · uwmedicine.org · hspop.uw.edu · impactcollaboratory.org · pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · agsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com · psychiatry.uw.edu · health.usnews.com. Something wrong or out of date? Tell us and we will correct it.
Summary prepared with AI assistance from the public sources linked above, reviewed every three months. It is not a review, a rating, or an endorsement.
Practice location
Fall Prevention Clinic, Harborview Medical Center
325 9th Ave
Seattle, WA 98104
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