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Ronald M. Epstein, MDDirector of Research in Family Medicine Associate Dean for Educational Evaluation and Research, University of Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry Professor of Family Medicine and Psychiatry Director of the Deans’ Teaching Fellows Program Contact Information: Email: Additional Education: |
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Ronald Epstein MD, in addition to his academic roles cited above, is also a practicing family physician. His teaching and research focus on communication in clinical settings and the patient-physician relationship, with special interest in caring for stigmatized populations, management of ambiguity, physician self-awareness and professional development. In medical education, he has published about teaching communication skills and assessing professional competence that includes the integration of knowledge, clinical judgment, interpersonal behavior, self-awareness and professionalism. His influential papers on Mindful Practice and on Defining and Assessing Professional Competence have drawn attention to the importance of the habits of mind of master clinicians. Dr Epstein directs the Rochester Center to Improve Communication in Health Care at the University of Rochester. Funded by grants from NIMH, NCI, AHRQ, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Center’s mission is to improve communication among members of health care teams, patients, and families. The center focuses on understanding how communication can reduce social, economic, racial, and ethnic disparities in health and health care. The Center supports collaborative work among faculty from several UR Departments, as well as multi-site studies. In particular, his AHRQ- and NIMH-funded studies use unannounced covert standardized patients to study physicians' practice behaviors, the impact of patient-physician relationships on health and health care costs, management of ambiguity in the clinical practice, and the effect of direct-to-consumer advertising on clinical care. He is also an experienced qualitative researcher, who has studied physicians' responses to patient expressions of worry, and counseling those with and at high risk for HIV disease. He is currently leading an NCI-funded project to outline future research initiatives in clinical communication and cancer. He has authored over 100 publications. He has received awards from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Institute of Mental Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Department of Health and Human Services, the Pfizer-AAFP Foundation, the Koppaka Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, and other state and foundation sources. Dr. Epstein was named the first George Engel and John Romano Dean’s Teaching Scholar at the University of Rochester, has been a visiting professor at over 25 medical schools in the USA, South America, and Europe and keynote speaker at over 30 national and international conferences on research and medical education. Ron Epstein graduated from Wesleyan University with a major in music in 1976 and from Harvard Medical School in 1984. He completed residency in Family Medicine at the University of Rochester – Highland Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program in 1987. At home, Dr Epstein is father of Eli (17) and Malka (13) and husband of Deborah Fox, a freelance lutenist. He enjoys playing the harpsichord, cooking, cycling, and cross-country skiing. |
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Recent Publications |
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to see publications by Dr. Epstein indexed in the National Library of Medicine's PubMed database.