Alexia M. Torke, MD, MS (Associate Director of the Fairbanks Fellowship in Clinical Ethics)
Bio
Dr. Torke is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of General Medicine and Geriatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine, and Research Scientist with the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Regenstrief Institute. Dr. Torke received her undergraduate degree from Carleton College and her M.D. from Indiana University. She completed her residency in Primary Care-Internal Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, GA, and then joined the faculty at Emory as a clinician-educator. During that time, she served on the Grady Memorial Hospital Ethics Committee and was a Faculty Fellow in Ethics at Emory University. She developed curricula in ethics and end of life care for medical students and residents. After five years on the faculty, Dr. Torke moved to the University of Chicago to pursue further training through a fellowship in Primary Care Health Services Research and Ethics, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration. Under the mentorship of Mark Siegler and Caleb Alexander, she completed both the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics Fellowship and a Masters in Science for Clinical Professionals.
Dr. Torke’s research focuses on ethical aspects of medical decision making for older adults. While at Emory, her research addressed end of life decision making for hospitalized adults. Her current research focuses on surrogate decision making for older adults with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment, addressing the process by which physicians, family members and others make decisions for older patients who lose the capacity to decide for themselves. Her research has been published in Archives of Internal Medicine, the Journal of General Internal Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Ethics. Since joining the Fairbanks Center in July, 2007, Dr. Torke has developed a structured curriculum to help ethics fellows in the design, execution and completion of their scholarly projects.
Education
- 2007- Masters of Science for Clinical Professionals
Department of Health Studies
University of Chicago, Chicago, IL - 1997- Doctor of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN - 1991- Bachelor of Arts- Psychology
Carleton College, Northfield, MN
Magna cum laude, with honors in psychology
Representative Publications
- Torke AM, Alexander GC, Lantos J. Substituted Judgment: The Limitations of Autonomy in Surrogate Decision Making. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2008;23(9):1514-7.
- Torke AM, Simmerling M, Siegler M, Kaya D, Alexander GC. Rethinking the Ethical Framework for Surrogate Decision-Making: A Qualitative Study of Physicians. Journal of Clinical Ethics. 2008;19(2):110-9.
- Torke AM, Alexander GC, Lantos J, Siegler M. The physician-surrogate relationship. Archives of Internal Medicine.2007;167(11):1117-21.
- Branch WT, Torke AM, Brown-Haithco RC. Acceptance through faith: The importance of spirituality in African Americans’ end-of-life experience. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2006;21(11):1203-5.
- Branch WT, Torke AM. If I was going to die: The voices of five dying patients. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2006;21(1):96-8.
- Torke AM, Garas NS, Sexson W, Branch WT. Medical Care at the End of Life: Views of African American Patients in an Urban Hospital. Journal of Palliative Medicine. 2005;8(3):593-602.
- Torke AM, Quest TE, Kinlaw K, Eley JW, Branch WT. A workshop to teach medical students communication skills and clinical knowledge about end-of-life care. Journal of General Internal Medicine. 2004;19(5 Pt 2):540-4.
- Torke AM, Corbie-Smith GM, Branch WT. African American Patients’ Perspectives on Medical Decision Making. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2004;164(5):525-30.
- Unverzagt FW, Hall KS, Torke AM, Rediger JD, Mercado N, Gureje O, Osuntokun BO, Hendrie HC. Effects of Age, Education, and Gender on CERAD Neuropsychological Test Performance in an African American Sample. The Clinical Neuropsychologist. 1996;10(2):180-90.