Robert Arnold MD

Emeritus Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics

Robert M. Arnold, MD, founded the Section of Palliative Care and Medical Ethics in 1997 and served as Chief until 2022. He is an Emeritus Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, and served as Medical Director of the UPMC Palliative and Supportive Institute until 2023. In 2024, Dr. Arnold was appointed Vice Chair for Professional Development within the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine in the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in New York.

His research focuses on how clinicians operationalize ethical precepts in the care of seriously ill patients. He works at the interface of communication skills training, medical ethics, and palliative care in an effort to improve clinicians’ skills. His current research focuses on teaching palliative care communication skills to clinicians using both face-to-face courses and new technologies and understanding the impact of these educational interventions. He also works with junior investigators to better understand the impact of primary palliative care interventions in oncology and cardiology. Finally, he is interested in studying health system wide interventions to improve seriously ill patients’ and families’ experiences. He teaches medical students, residents, and fellows from multiple disciplines on doctor-patient communication, medical ethics, and palliative care. Dr. Arnold was a founding faculty member of PaRC and we are pleased to now recognize him as faculty emeritus as he continues his work at Mount Sinai. His hobbies include reading, listening to music, and watching sports.