RobertLFineMDMACP, FAAHPM, HEC-C

Summary

• Dr. Robert Fine is a palliative care and clinical ethics specialist in Dallas, TX. Dr. Fine is a graduate of UT Austin (BA, summa cum laude, English) and UT Southwestern. He is a member of both Phi Beta Kappa and Alpha Omega Alpha honor societies. He has completed board certification in internal medicine, geriatrics and palliative medicine, and is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Fine is the founder of both Clinical Ethics (1985) and Supportive Palliative Care (2004) services at BSWH. The palliative medicine programs under his leadership have been nationally recognized for excellence twice by the American Hospital Association. He has previously served on the National Quality Forum Committee on Palliative and End of Life Care, the Ethics Committee of AAHPM, the Steering Committee on Palliative Care for the Coalition to Transform Advanced Care (C-TAC), and he co-chaired the national corporate ethics committee for VITAS hospice. In 1999 he served as the lead physician author of the Texas Advance Directives Act and has worked closely with the TMA, THA and others to maintain and improve the Act since that time. He has provided well over 2000 bedside clinical ethics consults, provided clinical ethics expertise to numerous health care organizations beyond BSWH, and has spearheaded development of the North Texas Mass Critical Care (pandemic triage) guidelines which have formed the basis of guidelines by many organizations across Texas. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management and publishes and lectures nationally on topics related to both Clinical Ethics and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Fine currently serves as the Clinical Director of the Office of Clinical Ethics and Palliative Care for Baylor Scott and White Health.