University of Virginia Health System

Leslie J. Blackhall, M.D., M.T.S., Medical Director,
Center for Geriatrics and Palliative Care
Director of Research, Center for Biomedical Ethics
434.243.5730
lb9x@virginia.edu

Leslie Blackhall, M.D., M.T.S. recently joined the faculty at the University of Virginia as Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Professor of Medical Education (Biomedical Ethics and Program for Humanities in Medicine). She is a Medical Director at the Center for Geriatric and Palliative Care, and Coordinator for Research at the Center for Biomedical Ethics. Dr. Blackhall received her BS in biology from Yale University and her medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. Following residency and fellowship training in General Internal Medicine, she received her Masters of Theological Studies from the Harvard Divinity School, where she studied cross-cultural and historical aspects of medical ethics. She a nationally known expert on the care of dying patients and has spoken to physicians and other health professionals across the country on the practical, ethical, and spiritual aspects of death and dying. Her research has focused on doctor-patient communication at the end of life, and includes a study of the attitudes of differing ethnic groups towards death and dying.

Selected Bibliography

Blackhall, L.J. "Must We Always Use CPR?", New England Journal of medicine, November 12, 1987; 317 20:1281-84

Blackhall, L.J. "Decisions Regarding Aggressive Care in Critically Ill Patients", Journal of General Internal Medicine, Vol. 4 No. 5, September/October 1989, 399-402.

Blackhall, L.J. "DNR Orders Need Clarification", General Rehabilitation Review, Vol. 3, Fall 1991.

Blackhall, L.J., Azen. S. "Low Survival Rate After Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation in a County Hospital", Archives of Internal Medicine, Vol. 152:2045-2048, October 1992.

Blackhall, L.J., Murphy S., Frank G., Michel V., Azen S. "Ethnicity and Attitudes Toward Patient Autonomy" JAMA Sept. 13, 1995.

Murphy S., Palmer J., Azen S., Frank G., Michel V., Blackhall L. "Ethnicity and Advance Care Directives" Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics, Summer issue 1996.

Ersek M., Kagawa-Singer M., Barnes D., Blackhall L., Koenig B. "Multicultural Considerations in the Use of Advance Directives." Oncology Nursing Forum, Vol 25:1683-1689, November/December 1998.

Loizzo J.L., Blackhall L.J. "Traditional Alternatives as Complementary Sciences: The Case of Indo-Tibetan Medicine" Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine Vol. 4:311-319 1998.

Frank G., Blackhall L., Michel V., Murphy S., Azen S., Park K. "A Discourse of Relationships in Bioethics: Patient Autonomy and End of Life Decision Making among Elderly Korean-Americans" Medical Anthropology Quarterly 12(4): 403-423, 1998.

Blackhall L., Frank G., Palmer J., Murphy S., Michel V., Azen S. "Ethnicity and Attitudes Toward Withholding and Withdrawing Medical Care", Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 48: 1979-1989, 1999.

Blackhall L., "Common Sense" Innovations in End of Life Care (http://www.edc.org/lastacts/) March 1999, collected in Innovations in End of Life Care: Practical Strategies and International Perspectives Solomon, M., Romer A., Heller K ED, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. publishers, 9/2000.

Blackhall L., Frank G., Michel V., Murphy S., "Bioethics in a Different Tongue: The Case of Truth-Telling", Journal of Urban Health, forthcoming.