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Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Division
University of Pennsylvania Medical Center
724 Blockley Hall
423 Guardian Drive
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6021
tel.: (215) 898-1462
fax: (215)573-5315
email: scott.halpern@uphs.upenn.edu
- MD: University of Pennsylvania
- Residency: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
- Fellowship: Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania
Dr. Halpern’s research explores how scarce and costly healthcare resources are allocated, and how they could be allocated more efficiently and equitably. His research combines empirical approaches from the fields of epidemiology, health services research, and the decision-making sciences with conceptual work grounded in moral philosophy. He applies these approaches to several areas of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. First, he examines how demand for critical care causes ICU beds and services to be rationed, with a specific focus on age-based and other allocation disparities. He additionally examines the consequences of increased ICU demand for patient safety and outcomes. Second, he studies methods to promote equity in the allocation of transplantable lungs and other organs. Third, he explores sources of heterogeneity in patients’ responses to therapies for pulmonary arterial hypertension, with the goal of determining how these costly therapies could be allocated more efficiently.
Dr. Halpern is a consultant on ethical and policy issues for several branches of the Department of Health and Human Services. His work has been supported recently by a Greenwall Foundation Faculty Scholar Award in Bioethics and by research grants from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Institute on Aging, the Society of Critical Care Medicine, and the American Thoracic Society.
Representative publications:
Halpern SD, Shaked A, Hasz RD, Caplan AL. Informing candidates for solid-organ transplantation about donor risk factors. New England Journal of Medicine 2008; 358:2832-2837.
Halpern SD, Doyle R, Kawut SM. The ethics of randomized clinical trials in pulmonary arterial hypertension. Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society 2008; 5:631-635.
Halpern SD, Ubel PA, Asch DA. Harnessing the power of default options to improve healthcare. New England Journal of Medicine 2007; 357:1340-44.
Halpern SD, Hansen-Flaschen J. Terminal withdrawal of life-sustaining supplemental oxygen. JAMA 2006; 296:1397-1400.
Halpern SD. HIV testing without consent in critically ill patients. JAMA 2005; 294: 734-7.
Halpern SD, Metkus TS, Fuchs BD, Ward NS, Siegel MD, Luce JM, Curtis JR. Nonconsented HIV testing among critically ill patients: Intensivists' practices and the influence of state laws. Archives of Internal Medicine 2007; 167:2323-2328.
revised 7/09 |
