Robert D. Truog, M.D.
Dr. Robert Truog is the Frances Glessner Lee Distinguished Professor of Legal Medicine, Anaesthesiology & Pediatrics and Director of the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Truog received his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles and is board certified in the practices of pediatrics, anesthesiology, and pediatric critical care medicine. He also holds a Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Brown University and an honorary Master’s of Arts from Harvard University.
As Director of the Center for Bioethics, he has overall responsibility for the Center’s many activities, including the Master of Bioethics graduate program, the Bioethics Fellowship Program, required courses in Medical Ethics and Professionalism for Harvard medical students, and the Center’s many workshops, seminars, and public forums. As Chair of Harvard University’s Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee (ESCRO), he is engaged in the interesting and difficult challenges of defining the ethical parameters of stem cell research and regenerative biology.
Dr. Truog also practices pediatric intensive care medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he has served for more than 30 years, including a decade as Chief of the Division of Critical Care Medicine.
Dr. Truog has published more than 300 articles in bioethics and related disciplines, and his writings on the subject of brain death have been translated into several languages. He authored current national guidelines for providing end-of-life care in the intensive care unit. He was principal investigator on the recently completed NIH study Toward Optimal Palliative Care in the PICU Setting. His books include “Talking with Patients and Families about Medical Error: A Guide for Education and Practice (2010, JHUP, translated into Italian and Japanese), and Death, Dying, and Organ Transplantation (2012, Oxford).
He lectures widely nationally and internationally, and is an active member of numerous committees and advisory boards. He has received several awards over the years, including the the William G. Bartholome Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Christopher Grenvik Memorial Award, and the Shubin-Weil Master Clinician-Teacher Award, both from the Society of Critical Care Medicine. In 2013 he was honored with the Spinoza Chair at the University of Amsterdam.
Affiliations:
- Departments of Anaesthesia and Pediatrics
- Boston Children's Hospital
- Center for Bioethics
Dr. Robert Truog directs the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School, and he is interested in virtually every facet of the field of bioethics. Most of his research, however, relates to his work in the pediatric intensive care unit at Boston Children’s Hospital, where he has practiced for more than three decades. Major topics of interest include the concept of brain death, the ethics of organ procurement and transplantation, end-of-life care in the ICU, futility and the limits of medical technology, rationing of scarce resources, and disclosure and apology following medical errors. He has written more than 300 papers and two books, including “Talking with Patients and Families about Medical Error: A Guide for Education and Practice (2010, JHUP, translated into Italian and Japanese), and Death, Dying, and Organ Transplantation (2012, Oxford).
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See also: What Doctors and Patients Don’t Want to Talk About
J Pediatr
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Intensive Care Med
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N Engl J Med
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Ann Am Thorac Soc
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