Robert Arnold, MD
North 1976
Robert Arnold graduated from North High in 1976. He attended the University of Tennessee in Memphis and received his medical ethics practicum certificate from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He received a bachelor's degree in biology and philosophy from the University of Missouri-Kansas City and his doctorate of medicine from UMKC's school of medicine. He lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
Bob is a board-certified internist at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine's Division of General Internal Medicine. He is the director of Palliative Care Service at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and is a faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh Center for Bioethics and Health Law.
As a faculty scholar on the Project on Death in America, Bob is working to teach physician leaders how to educate peers to better communicate with patients and their families concerning end-of-life issues. His clinical activities focus on providing palliative care in a tertiary care hospital and in providing primary care to HIV-positive in-patients. He is a leader in the fields of medical ethics, doctor-patient communications and end-of-life issues
Bob's research interests include advance directives and decisions to forgo life-sustaining treatment, autonomy in decision-making, organ procurement, and integrating clinical ethics into internal medicine residency education. He serves on the ethics committee of the Society of General Internal Medicine and has held leadership positions with groups including the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the American Society of Bioethics and Humanities.
The author of over 70 articles on teaching clinical ethics, the role of ethics committees and more, Bob has served as a reviewer for the American Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association and many other publications. He has served on the editorial board of the Journal of General Internal Medicine and Journal of Palliative Medicine. He is also the author of a number of books and book chapters.