James N. Kirkpatrick, MD
Dr. Kirkpatrick is Professor of Medicine and Bioethics and Humanities, Chair of the UW Medical Center Ethics Committee, Section of Chief of Cardiac Imaging in the Division of Cardiology, Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory, and a Clinical Ethics Consultant at the UW Medical Center. Dr. Kirkpatrick is one of the few ethics-trained cardiologists in the United States. He lectures and performs research in the areas of ethics of cardiac devices, palliative cardiology, and echocardiography. He has held multiple leadership positions in cardiovascular societies in cardiovascular geriatrics and cardioethics, including serving on the ethics committees of the Heart Rhythm Society, the American Society of Echocardiography, and the American College of Cardiology (chair). He sees patients in the general cardiology clinic at UW Medical Center, attendings on the inpatient teaching services, and performs echocardiographic procedures.
Dr. Kirkpatrick graduated from Pomona College and received his M.D. from Loma Linda University. He completed internship and residency at Yale in internal medicine and clinical medical ethics and cardiology fellowships at the University of Chicago. He was on the cardiovascular and ethics faculty and co-chaired the ethics committee at the University of Pennsylvania, then joined UW cardiology and bioethics and humanities in 2015. Dr. Kirkpatrick's personal interests include reading history and travel (especially overseas medical outreach).
Professor of Medicine and Bioethics and Humanities
University of Washington School of Medicine
Section Chief, Cardiac Imaging and Director of Echocardiography, Division of Cardiology
Ethics Committee Chair and Ethics Consultant, University of Washington Medical Center
Chair, American Society of Echocardiography Foundation
Chair, American College of Cardiology Ethics and Bylaws Committee
Research interests: echocardiography, ventricular assist and other cardiac assist devices; the use of echocardiography in developing world nations; education and the practice of cardiac palliative care, especially for patients with cardiac devices; ethical issues in the practice of cardiology ("cardioethics")
