David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

Contributing Writer

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH, is a general internist and a clinician-educator. His special interests include medical decision-making, “against medical advice” discharges, and ethics consultation. Dr Alfandre completed his public health training at the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, followed by 2 years of service as a health educator in the Peace Corps. He graduated from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and then completed his internal medicine training at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York. He is currently a health care ethicist at the VA National Center for Ethics in Health Care and an associate professor of medicine and population health at the NYU School of Medicine. He takes care of patients as a hospitalist teaching attending at the VA New York Harbor Health Care System. His twitter handle is @alfandremd.

All articles by David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

Ethics

Elevator Ethics: No Talking About Patients

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

July 24, 2023

Health care providers should avoid talking about specific patients even when members of the public or patients are not present.

Ethics

The Psychology of Conflict Resolution

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

April 21, 2023

Health care providers should try not to make the common mistake of assuming that they have not contributed even in a small way to a conflict.

Ethics

How an Ethics Consultant Can Help Resolve Conflicts

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

October 14, 2022

Ethics consultants begin by identifying and clarifying the conflict to ensure it is related to ethics.

Doctor comforting mature woman sitting with adult son

Medicine

The Role and Responsibilities of Surrogate Decision Makers

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

October 6, 2022

Surrogate decision makers for a patient are obligated to make health care decisions based on what the patient would have wanted if it is known.

Doctor compassionately listens to female patient

Ethics

Violating Patient Confidentiality Is Sometimes Necessary

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

June 10, 2022

Patients trust that what they tell their doctors will remain confidential, but under certain specific circumstances, the doctors may be obligated to breach that trust.

Medicine

It’s a Doctor’s Duty to Combat COVID-19 Misinformation

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

April 12, 2022

The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how easy it is for disreputable and non-authoritative sources to spread wrong and possibly dangerous medical information.

Ethics

Physicians Must Help Patients Evaluate Risk vs Benefit

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

December 30, 2021

When patients are able to articulate their beliefs, it can help them move from making what may have been an unconscious choice into a conscious one.

Medicine

The Importance of Equity in Addressing Disparities in Health Care

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

November 8, 2021

Equality assures that everyone receives the same thing, but equity assures that everyone gets what they need.

Ethics

Strategies for Managing Uncertainty in Patient Care

David Alfandre, MD, MSPH

May 7, 2021

For many health care professionals, successfully managing uncertainty means recognizing that surety is complicated and illusory and knowledge is iterative and provisional rather than definitive.