Savitri Fedson, MA, MD, is an Associate Professor of the Center of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. She completed a BA and MA at the University of Chicago in Intellectual History, and then received her MD from the University of Virginia. She went on to complete her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago and served as Chief Resident at John Stroger Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She then completed a fellowship in Cardiology at the University of Chicago and did advanced training in heart failure/transplantation at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Fedson is also a graduate of the MacLean Center for Clinical Medical Ethics Program at the University of Chicago. Dr. Fedson is the medical director of the advanced heart failure/transplant cardiologist at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. She has been involved in the care of patients for over 20 years and is an active member of the ACC, ISHLT and HFSA and has been a contributing writer to national practice guidelines related to transplantation, mechanical circulatory support and heart failure. She has served on the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Committee for Question Writing for heart failure/transplantation, as well as on the ACC Workforce on Professional Competency. She currently heads the ABIM Board Exam writing committee for Advanced Heart Failure and Transplantation.
Dr. Fedson is the co-chair of the Hospital Ethics Committee at the Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center, an performs ethics consultation at the VA and at Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center.
She has been a speaker at national and international heart failure and transplant meetings on topics such as Palliative care of the heart failure patient, End of Life, Ethical Dilemmas in Heart Transplant Candidacy, and Candidacy for Mechanical Circulatory Support and antibody mediated rejection. She has also lectured on topics related to clinical professionalism, and the application of clinical ethics to disciplines within medicine, such as palliative surgery, and high-risk decision making.