Award winning Geriatrician, past Chief Med Officer

Specialties & Experience of this Expert Witness

Additional Information

I am an Award - winning Geriatrician as recent recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Arizona Geriatric Society for over 40 years of clinical care, education and administration in the field of Geriatric Medicine. As the current Service Chief for Geriatrics and Extended Care at the Phoenix VA, I oversee a large department that provides diverse services to elderly patients including: outpatient geriatric primary care, dementia evaluation and management, and functional status assessment; Community Living Center for post-acute, long-term care and hospice; inpatient and outpatient Palliative Care; Home-Based Primary Care; coordination of care for patients in community nursing homes. I also serve on Medical Advisory Panel for the VA National Pharmacy Benefits Management Service, which is a multidisciplinary team that sets the formulary as well as policies and procedures for medication use across the VA Healthcare System. I have a current appointment as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Arizona - Phoenix and Associate Director of the University of Arizona/Phoenix VA Geriatrics Fellowship Program, with over 200 past publications and I have helped train hundreds of medical students, residents and fellows in internal medicine and geriatrics over the course of my career. I also spent twenty-one years as Chief Medical Officer at Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix, Arizona, a large, tertiary care, academic institution and the flagship hospital for Banner Health, the largest healthcare system in Arizona. In that role, as well as in my current role, I have served or chaired multiple medical staff committees and have expertise and experience in a wide array of hospital administrative practices including Quality Management, Patient Safety, Peer Review, Risk Management, Utilization Management, Medical Staff credentialing and privileging, Medical Records policies and procedures, Joint Commission accreditation and healthcare finance and reimbursement. For the past ten years I have also been an independent consultant for Liberty Mutual and Lincoln Financial Group insurance companies, performing detailed chart reviews of records for employees of many companies across the country who were applying for long-term disability benefits and am capable of writing detailed, clear and concise reports with evidence-based opinions regarding the degree of disability and the need for medically- indicated activity and/or work restrictions and limitations due to reduced functional capacity. I hold lifetime Board Certification in Internal Medicine and am also certified in Geriatric Medicine with my most recent 10-year re-certification being in 2016. I was also previously certified in Hospice and Palliative Medicine and am very familiar with the principles of prognosis and life expectancy for individuals with life-limiting illnesses and those at or near the end of life. Finally, I have also served as an expert witness on numerous cases involving geriatrics patients for both plaintiff and defense attorneys and can reliably provide clear and concise written reports with punctual turnaround to address any and all issues pertinent to geriatric medicine.