Giovanni Elia, M.D.

Dr. Giovanni Elia is currently Clinical Medical Director at San Diego Hospice and the Institute of Palliative Medicine (SDH & IPM) and Voluntary Associate Clinical Professor in Reproductive Medicine and Palliative Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), School of Medicine.

In this role, he:

• Coordinates and provides consultative services in Palliative Medicine for the Howell Service at the UCSD University Hospitals
• Educates SDH & IPM Palliative Medicine fellows and International fellows, UCSD residents, medical students and nursing staff, and Family Medicine and Internal Medicine residents from various programs in San Diego
• Participates in the activity of the International Program for SDH & IPM
• Provides Palliative Medicine consults for San Diego Hospice patients
• Participates in the management of San Diego Hospice outpatient teams

Dr. Elia graduated summa cum laude from the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Medical School in Rome, Italy in 1981. He then completed a 5 year Residency in Urology and concurrently served as a Research Fellow in Pharmacology at the Universita’ Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. Over the next four years, he completed an Internship in General Surgery at Lutheran Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, followed by a 3-year Residency in Obstetrics & Gynecology at Our Lady of Mercy Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. He then served for 1 year (1990-1991) as Fellow in Pelvic Surgery in the department of Gynecologic Oncology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and as Fellow in Gynecologic Urology at the University of Southern California School of Medicine in Los Angeles (1991-1993). After the completion of this Fellowship, Dr. Elia served first as Assistant Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology then as Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Urology at the State University of New York in Syracuse, NY. He was also the Director of the Urogynecology Service. In the year 2000 Dr. Elia was invited to start a new program in Urogynecology and Pelvic Reconstructive Surgery at St.Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan. He was also appointed Associate Professor of Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Columbia College of Physician and Surgeons. In 2003 received the appointment of Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Anatomy at the Edward Via Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blackburg, VA. 

In June 2007 Dr. Elia completed a Fellowship in Palliative Medicine at San Diego Hospice in San Diego.

Dr. Elia is board certified in Obstetrics and Gynecology and in Palliative Medicine.