Eric Lewis Krakauer, MD, PhD

Eric L. Krakauer, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Medicine and of Global Health & Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an attending physician in the Division of Palliative Care & Geriatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital where he also directs the Global Palliative Care Program. He received a PhD in philosophy and MD from Yale University, trained in internal medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and completed fellowships in general internal medicine and in medical ethics at Harvard Medical School. At Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Krakauer served for 19 years on the clinical ethics committee, including 8 years as Co-Chair, chaired the hospital’s Life Sustaining Treatment Policy Committee, led implementation of a “due process” approach to resolving intractable conflict over life sustaining treatment, and also led the design and implementation of a new system for writing code status orders to better honor patients’ values. He has published extensively on ethical and medical issues in palliative and end-of-life care, and he has received several awards for his recent work on global palliative care including a Fulbright Scholarship and an Honorary Chair at the University of Medicine & Pharmacy at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.