{{Short description|American doctor and researcher}} {{Infobox academic | name = Scott D. Halpern | image = Halpern-Scott 2025 cropped - Copy.jpg | caption = | birth_date = | birth_place = | spouse = {{marriage|Analisa V. Halpern, MD|2003}} | occupation = | title = | awards = | website = | education = BS, Psychology and Economics, 1991, [[Duke University]]; MS, Clinical Epidemiology, 2001; MBe (Bioethics), 2002; PhD, Epidemiology, 2002, MD, 2003, [[University of Pennsylvania]] | alma_mater = | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | workplaces = [[Perelman School of Medicine]] }} '''Scott D. Halpern''' is an American critical care and palliative care physician at [[University of Pennsylvania Health System|Penn Medicine]], and the John M. Eisenberg Professor in Medicine and Professor of Epidemiology and of Medical Ethics and Health Policy at the [[University of Pennsylvania]]’s [[Perelman School of Medicine]]. He is also the Founding Director of the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research (PAIR) Center at the [[University of Pennsylvania]] (Penn).<ref>{{cite web |title=The Palliative and Advanced Illness Research Center |url=https://pair.upenn.edu/ |website=The PAIR Center}}</ref> In 2024, Halpern was elected to the [[National Academy of Medicine]] for his research examining ways to improve care for seriously ill patients and their families.<ref>{{cite web |title=National Academy of Medicine Elects 100 New Members |url=https://nam.edu/news-and-insights/national-academy-of-medicine-elects-100-new-members-6/ |website=National Academy of Medicine |date=21 October 2024 }}</ref>
== Early life and education ==
Halpern grew up in Springfield, NJ, and graduated from the [[Pingry School]] in 1991, where he was a 3-sport varsity athlete. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Psychology and Economics from [[Duke University]] in 1995, where he was also the Health and Science Editor of [[Duke Chronicle|The Chronicle]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Scott Halpern |url=https://www.dukechronicle.com/by/scott-halpern |website=The Chronicle |date=13 June 1996 }}</ref> In 2003, he became the first student to earn a combined MD/PhD in Epidemiology from Penn, also earning a Master of Bioethics (MBe) during this time. Halpern completed clinical training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in Internal Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Palliative Medicine.<ref>{{cite web |title=Scott D. Halpern, MD, PhD, M.Bioethics |url=https://www.med.upenn.edu/apps/faculty/index.php/g275/p8932 |website=Perelman School of Medicine}}</ref>
== Early research career ==
Halpern’s Ph.D. Dissertation in Epidemiology and Biostatistics focused on the design and ethics of randomized clinical trials and earned Penn’s Saul Winegrad Award for outstanding dissertation.<ref>{{cite web |title=Saul Winegrad Award for Outstanding Dissertation Recipients 1995 – Present |url=https://www.med.upenn.edu/bgs/assets/user-content/documents/saul-winegrad-award-for-outstanding-dissertation-for-web.pdf |website=Perelman School of Medicine |access-date=16 April 2026}}</ref> Much of his scholarship as a post-doctoral fellow and junior faculty member focused on ways to improve the supply<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Estimated supply of organ donors after circulatory determination of death: a population-based cohort study |journal=JAMA |date=December 15, 2010 |volume=304 |issue=23 |pages=2592–2594 |doi=10.1001/jama.2010.1824 |pmid=21156947 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.1824|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Regulated payments for living kidney donation: an empirical assessment of the ethical concerns |journal=Annals of Internal Medicine |date=March 16, 2010 |volume=152 |issue=10 |pages=358–365 |doi=10.7326/0003-4819-152-6-201003160-00005 |pmid=20231566 |pmc=2865248 |url=https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-152-6-201003160-00005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=The ethics of paying kidney donors |url=https://whyy.org/articles/paying-kidney-donors/ |work=WHYY |date=March 17, 2010}}</ref> and allocation<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Munson |first1=Jeffrey |title=The societal impact of single versus bilateral lung transplantation for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease |journal=American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine |date=August 25, 2011 |volume=184 |issue=11 |pages=1282–1288 |doi=10.1164/rccm.201104-0695OC |pmid=21868502 |pmc=3262042 |url=https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201104-0695OC}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Thabut |first1=Gabriel |title=Survival differences following lung transplantation among US transplant centers |journal=JAMA |date=July 7, 2010 |volume=304 |issue=1 |pages=53–60 |doi=10.1001/jama.2010.885 |pmid=20606149 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2010.885|url-access=subscription }}</ref> of transplantable organs. He penned analyses of controversial transplant practices,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Solid-organ transplantation in HIV-infected patients |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=July 25, 2002 |volume=347 |issue=4 |pages=284–287 |doi=10.1056/NEJMsb020632 |pmid=12140307 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmsb020632}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Informing candidates for solid-organ transplantation about donor risk factors |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=June 26, 2008 |volume=358 |issue=26 |pages=2832–2837 |doi=10.1056/NEJMsb0800674 |pmid=18579820 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmsb0800674|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Allocating Organs to Cognitively Impaired Patients |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=January 26, 2017 |volume=376 |issue=4 |pages=299–301 |doi=10.1056/NEJMp1613858 |pmid=28121499 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1613858|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Truog |first1=Robert |title=The dead-donor rule and the future of organ donation |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=October 3, 2013 |volume=369 |issue=14 |pages=1287–1289 |doi=10.1056/NEJMp1307220 |pmid=24088088 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1307220|url-access=subscription }}</ref> including specific cases such as the [[Sarah Murnaghan lung transplant controversy]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Turning wrong into right: the 2013 lung allocation controversy |journal=Annals of Internal Medicine |date=September 3, 2013 |volume=159 |issue=5 |pages=358–359 |doi=10.7326/0003-4819-159-5-201309030-00684 |pmid=23797998 |url=https://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-159-5-201309030-00684|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Extending the theme of how best to allocate scarce health care resources, Halpern next developed the construct of and coined the term “ICU capacity strain”<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=ICU capacity strain and the quality and allocation of critical care |journal=Current Opinion in Critical Care |date=December 1, 2011 |volume=17 |issue=6 |pages=648–657 |doi=10.1097/MCC.0b013e32834c7a53 |pmid=21986461 |url=https://doi.org/10.1097/mcc.0b013e32834c7a53|url-access=subscription }}</ref>—i.e., the causes and consequences of limits on a hospital unit’s ability to deliver high-quality care to all patients who could benefit from it at a given time. The construct has been adopted by investigators around the world to understand how care changes when ICUs and hospitals get busy.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rewa |first1=Oleksa |title=Indicators of intensive care unit capacity strain: A systematic review |journal=Critical Care |date=March 27, 2018 |volume=22 |issue=1 |article-number=86 |doi=10.1186/s13054-018-1975-3 |doi-access=free |pmid=29587816 |pmc=5870068 }}</ref> Additional work from Halpern’s research group showed that ICU readmission rates are not attributable to the quality of ICU care,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Sydney |title=The epidemiology of intensive care unit readmissions in the United States |journal=American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine |date=May 1, 2012 |volume=185 |issue=9 |pages=955–964 |doi=10.1164/rccm.201109-1720oc |pmid=22281829 |pmc=3359937 |url=https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.201109-1720oc}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Brown |first1=Sydney |title=An empirical derivation of the optimal time interval for defining ICU readmissions |journal=Medical Care |date=August 1, 2013 |volume=51 |issue=8 |pages=706–714 |doi=10.1097/MLR.0b013e318293c2fa |pmid=23698182 |pmc=3714373 |url=https://doi.org/10.1097/mlr.0b013e318293c2fa}}</ref> contributing to Medicare’s decision to abandon its plan to develop ICU readmission rate as a quality measure.<ref>{{cite web |title=Summary Report of the Technical Expert Panel Meeting, April 2013 (Deliverable #20) |url=https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Quality-Initiatives-Patient-Assessment-Instruments/MMS/Downloads/Development-Maintenance-and-Support-of-Hospital-Clinical-Quality-Measures-for-ARRA-HITECH-TEP-Summary-Report.pdf |website=CMS.gov |access-date=7 April 2026}}</ref>
In 2011, Halpern was named the Deputy Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics (CHIBE) at Penn, led by [[Kevin Volpp]], applying behavioral economic principles to some of the most pressing challenges in preventive health care.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Harnessing the power of default options to improve health care |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=September 27, 2007 |volume=357 |issue=13 |pages=1340–1344 |doi=10.1056/NEJMsb071595 |pmid=17898105 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmsb071595|url-access=subscription }}</ref> With Volpp, Halpern conducted some of the largest trials ever in the field of smoking cessation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Randomized trial of four financial-incentive programs for smoking cessation |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=May 13, 2015 |volume=372 |issue=22 |pages=2108–2117 |doi=10.1056/nejmoa1414293 |pmid=25970009 |pmc=4471993 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmoa1414293}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=A pragmatic trial of e-cigarettes, incentives, and drugs for smoking cessation |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=May 23, 2018 |volume=378 |issue=24 |pages=2302–2310 |doi=10.1056/NEJMsa1715757 |pmid=29791259 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmsa1715757}}</ref>
Motivated by the premature death of his father, Richard Halpern, in 2009,<ref>{{cite web |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=What is behavioral economics? Can it advance the care of seriously ill patients? |url=http://mediasite.med.upenn.edu/mediasite/Play/1e3169ade32446118da00289740b51be1d |access-date=7 April 2026}}</ref> Halpern in 2012 founded the Fostering Improvement in End-of-Life Decision Science (FIELDS) program, the nation’s first program specifically applying behavioral economic principles to the delivery of end-of-life care for seriously ill patients.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Employing behavioral economics and decision science in crucial choices at end of life |journal=Health Affairs |date=December 1, 2012 |volume=31 |issue=12 |pages=2789–2790 |doi=10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1107 |pmid=23174815 |url=https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.1107|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Halpern's scholarship through the FIELDS program was recognized that same year when the [[Robert Wood Johnson Foundation]] selected him and 9 others to receive its inaugural Young Leader Award, given to "leaders ages 40 and under for their exceptional contributions to improving the health of the nation."<ref>{{cite news |title=Honors and other things |url=https://almanac.upenn.edu/archive/volumes/v59/n11/pdf_n11/110612.pdf |access-date=7 April 2026 |work=Almanac |volume=59 |issue=11 |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |date=November 6, 2012}}</ref> In addition to empirical work demonstrating that the ways in which end-of-life decisions are framed heavily influence the choices seriously ill patients make,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Default options in advance directives influence how patients set goals for end-of-life care |journal=Health Affairs |date=February 1, 2013 |volume=32 |issue=2 |doi=10.1377/hlthaff.2012.0895 |pmid=23381535 |url=https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2012.0895|pmc=4445426 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Courtright |first1=Katherine |title=A Randomized Trial of Expanding Choice Sets to Motivate Advance Directive Completion |journal=Medical Decision Making |date=August 10, 2016 |volume=37 |issue=5 |doi=10.1177/0272989x16663709 |pmid=27510741 |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/0272989x16663709|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Josephs |first1=Michael |title=Active Choice Intervention Increases Advance Directive Completion: A Randomized Trial |journal=Medical Decision Making – Policy & Practice |date=February 20, 2018 |volume=3 |issue=1 |doi=10.1177/2381468317753127 |pmid=30288436 |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/2381468317753127|doi-access=free }}</ref> Halpern has addressed the foundational ethical issues raised by “nudging” patients’ healthcare choices.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Gorin |first1=Moti |title=Justifying Clinical Nudges |journal=Hastings Center Report |date=March 1, 2017 |volume=47 |issue=2 |doi=10.1002/hast.688 |pmid=28301695 |url=https://doi.org/10.1002/hast.688|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
Halpern has challenged the serious illness care field to apply the same level of analytic rigor to studying interventions as is required for new-drug development.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Toward Evidence-Based End-of-Life Care |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=November 19, 2015 |volume=373 |issue=21 |doi=10.1056/NEJMp1509664 |pmid=26465826 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1509664|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Burling |first1=Stacey |title=Making end-of-life care more scientific |url=https://www.inquirer.com/philly/health/20160522_Making_end-of-life_care_more_scientific.html |access-date=10 April 2026 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer. |date=May 22, 2016}}</ref> He is also known for prominent analyses of other critical topics in end-of-life care, including [[Advance healthcare directive|advance directives]] and physician orders for life-sustaining therapy,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rolnick |first1=Joshua |title=Delegalizing Advance Directives - Facilitating Advance Care Planning |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=June 1, 2017 |volume=376 |issue=22 |doi=10.1056/nejmp1700502 |pmid=28564570 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1700502|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Can the United States buy better advance care planning? |journal=Annals of Internal Medicine |date=February 3, 2015 |volume=162 |issue=3 |doi=10.7326/m14-2476 |pmid=25486099 |url=https://doi.org/10.7326/m14-2476|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Moore |first1=Kendra |title=The Problems With Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment |journal=JAMA |date=January 19, 2016 |volume=315 |issue=3 |doi=10.1001/jama.2015.17362 |pmid=26754769 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2015.17362|url-access=subscription }}</ref> goal-concordant care,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Goal-Concordant Care - Searching for the Holy Grail |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=October 24, 2019 |volume=381 |issue=17 |doi=10.1056/nejmp1908153 |pmid=31644843 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp1908153|url-access=subscription }}</ref> [[Assisted dying|medical aid in dying]],<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=Learning about End-of-Life Care from Grandpa |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=February 4, 2021 |volume=384 |issue=5 |doi=10.1056/nejmp2026629 |pmid=33085883 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2026629|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and health states patients consider worse than death.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rubin |first1=Emily |title=States Worse Than Death Among Hospitalized Patients With Serious Illnesses |journal=JAMA Internal Medicine |date=October 1, 2016 |volume=176 |issue=10 |doi=10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4362 |pmid=27479808 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2016.4362}}</ref>
== Subsequent research == In 2017, Halpern established the Palliative and Advanced Illness Research (PAIR) Center. The mission of the PAIR Center is to “generate high-quality evidence to advance healthcare policies and practices with the goals of improving the lives of all people affected by serious illness and removing the barriers to health equity that seriously ill patients commonly face.”<ref>{{cite web |title=About the PAIR Center |url=https://pair.upenn.edu/about/ |website=The PAIR Center}}</ref>
Within the PAIR Center, Halpern and his team have studied how patients and clinicians communicate and make decisions around serious illness care, including how they predict future outcomes.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Detsky |first1=Michael |title=Discriminative Accuracy of Physician and Nurse Predictions for Survival and Functional Outcomes 6 Months After an ICU Admission |journal=JAMA |date=June 6, 2017 |volume=317 |issue=21 |doi=10.1001/jama.2017.4078 |pmid=28528347 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.4078}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Rubin |first1=Emily |title=Intuitive vs Deliberative Approaches to Making Decisions About Life Support: A Randomized Clinical Trial |journal=JAMA Network Open |date=January 4, 2019 |volume=2 |issue=1 |doi=10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.7851 |pmid=30681717 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2018.7851|pmc=6484534 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hart |first1=Joanna |title=Accuracy of expected symptoms and subsequent quality of life measures among adults with COPD |journal=JAMA Network Open |date=November 1, 2023 |volume=6 |issue=11 |doi=10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.44030 |pmid=37988080 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.44030|pmc=10663971 }}</ref> His team conducts clinical trials testing scalable interventions to improve care, including conducting some of the largest trials ever in the field of palliative care delivery.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Courtright |first1=Katherine |title=Default palliative care consultation for seriously ill hospitalized patients: A pragmatic cluster-randomized trial |journal=JAMA |date=January 16, 2024 |volume=331 |issue=3 |doi=10.1001/jama.2023.25092 |pmid=38227032 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.25092|pmc=10792472 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Raeke |first1=Meagan |title=A scalable strategy to increase inpatient palliative care |url=https://www.pennmedicine.org/news/scalable-strategy-increases-inpatient-palliative-care |access-date=10 April 2026 |work=Penn Medicine News |date=January 16, 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Courtright |first1=Katherine |title=Nudging Clinicians to Promote Serious Illness Communication for Critically Ill Patients: A Pragmatic Cluster-Randomized Trial |journal=JAMA Internal Medicine |date=May 1, 2025 |volume=185 |issue=5 |doi=10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.0090 |pmid=40094649 |url=https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2025.0090}}</ref>
Additionally, Halpern works to promote fairness in clinical care delivery<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Chesley |first1=Christopher |title=Characterizing Equity of Intensive Care Unit Admissions for Sepsis and Acute Respiratory Failure |journal=Annals of the American Thoracic Society |date=December 1, 2022 |volume=19 |issue=12 |doi=10.1513/annalsats.202202-115oc |pmid=35830576 |url=https://doi.org/10.1513/annalsats.202202-115oc|pmc=9743468 }}</ref> and reduce bias in clinical prediction models.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Ashana |first1=Deepshikha |title=Equitably Allocating Resources during Crises: Racial Differences in Mortality Prediction Models |journal=American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine |date=July 15, 2021 |volume=204 |issue=2 |doi=10.1164/rccm.202012-4383oc |pmid=33751910 |url=https://doi.org/10.1164/rccm.202012-4383oc|pmc=8759151 }}</ref> He also works to improve the representativeness of clinical trials<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Schwartz |first1=Aaron |title=Why Diverse Clinical Trial Participation Matters |journal=New England Journal of Medicine |date=April 6, 2023 |volume=388 |issue=14 |doi=10.1056/nejmp2215609 |pmid=37017480 |url=https://doi.org/10.1056/nejmp2215609}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Zaman |first1=Mirel |title=Clinical Trials (Still) Have a Race Problem. Where Do We Go From Here? |url=https://www.healthcentral.com/chronic-health/clinical-trials-still-have-a-race-problem |access-date=10 April 2026 |work=HealthCentral |date=March 30, 2026}}</ref> through the Behavioral Economics to Transform Trial Enrollment Representativeness Center,<ref>{{cite web |title=BETTER Center: Behavioral Economics to Transform Trial Enrollment Representativeness Center |url=https://pair.upenn.edu/program/better-center/ |website=The PAIR Center}}</ref> which Halpern founded in 2022 with funding from the [[American Heart Association]]’s strategically focused research network on the science of diversity in clinical trials.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Michos |first1=Erin |title=Evaluating the Science of Diversity in Clinical Trials: Design and Goals of an American Heart Association Strategic Focused Research Network |journal=Journal of the American Heart Association |date=October 7, 2025 |volume=14 |issue=19 |doi=10.1161/JAHA.125.041831 |pmid=40996051 |url=https://doi.org/10.1161/jaha.125.041831}}</ref>
During the [[COVID-19 pandemic]], Halpern was also featured by news outlets across the country<ref>{{cite news |last1=Abdelmalek |first1=Mark |title=As coronavirus pandemic surges, hospitals prepare for grim possibility of 'ventilator triage' |url=https://abcnews.com/Health/coronavirus-pandemic-surges-hospitals-prepare-grim-possibility-ventilator/story?id=69770794 |access-date=10 April 2026 |work=ABC News |date=March 25, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Said |first1=Carolyn |title=Which coronavirus patients get ventilators, and how will California hospitals decide? |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Coronavirus-ethics-Which-patients-get-15178466.php |access-date=10 April 2026 |work=San Francisco Chronicle |date=April 4, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Doctors worry they will be forced into life-or-death decisions amid virus pandemic: 'I'm not God' |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/coronavirus-doctors-hospitals-life-or-death-decisions-pandemic/ |access-date=10 April 2026 |work=CBS News |date=April 8, 2020}}</ref> for his clinical work in ICUs, scholarship on the supply and allocation of beds and ventilators,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Halpern |first1=Scott |title=The Urge to Build More Intensive Care Unit Beds and Ventilators: Intuitive but Errant |journal=Annals of Internal Medicine |date=August 18, 2020 |volume=173 |issue=4 |doi=10.7326/m20-2071 |pmid=32379853 |url=https://doi.org/10.7326/m20-2071|pmc=7224606 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Weissman |first1=Gary |title=Locally Informed Simulation to Predict Hospital Capacity Needs During the COVID-19 Pandemic |journal=Annals of Internal Medicine |date=October 20, 2020 |volume=173 |issue=8 |doi=10.7326/l20-1062 |pmid=33075245 |url=https://doi.org/10.7326/l20-1062|url-access=subscription }}</ref> and his contributions to ethics guidelines for the allocation of such resources that were adopted by hospitals across Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web |last1=White |first1=Douglas |last2=Halpern |first2=Scott |title=Allocation of Scarce Critical Care Resources During a Public Health Emergency |url=https://bioethics.pitt.edu/sites/default/files/Univ%20Pittsburgh%20-%20Allocation%20of%20Scarce%20Critical%20Care%20Resources%20During%20a%20Public%20Health%20Emergency.pdf |website=Institute for Bioethics |publisher=University of Pittsburgh |access-date=10 April 2026}}</ref>
== Mentorship == Halpern serves as the Principal Investigator of the nation’s only training grant in Critical Care Health Policy Research (T32HL098054)<ref>{{cite web |title=Training in Critical Care Health Policy Research |url=https://reporter.nih.gov/search/xIWGtu9410CSPNbdznsHsA/project-details/11016076 |website=NIH RePORTER |access-date=10 April 2026}}</ref> and is the recipient of an NIH Midcareer Investigator Award in Patient-Oriented Research (K24HL143289),<ref>{{cite web |title=Improving the fairness of RCTs among patients with acute and chronic respiratory failure |url=https://reporter.nih.gov/search/KjXt7Z8nKkWf_--obMrgpw/project-details/11124642 |website=NIH RePORTER |access-date=10 April 2026}}</ref> which provides dedicated time to support his mentorship. In addition to training postdoctoral fellows and early-career faculty, Halpern has mentored medical, graduate, and undergraduate students for more than 15 years.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Levins |first1=Hoag |title=Penn LDI Receives $3.5 Million Gift from the Son of Its Founding Benefactor |url=https://ldi.upenn.edu/our-work/research-updates/penn-ldi-receives-3-5-million-gift-from-the-son-of-its-founder/ |access-date=10 April 2026 |work=Penn LDI |date=January 28, 2025}}</ref> He has been recognized with the John Hansen-Flaschen Award for Outstanding Mentorship and the Arthur K. Asbury Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award from the University of Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite web |title=Announcing 2019 Penn Medicine Awards of Excellence |url=https://www.med.upenn.edu/evpdeancommunications/2019-09-20-167.html |website=Office of the Dean |publisher=Perelman School of Medicine |access-date=10 April 2026}}</ref>
== Awards and honors == * 2024 Elected Member of the [[National Academy of Medicine]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Scott David Halpern |url=https://nam.edu/member/scott-david-halpern/ |website=National Academy of Medicine |access-date=10 April 2026}}</ref> * 2025 J. Randall Curtis Humanism Award, [[American Thoracic Society]]<ref>{{cite web |title=J Randall Curtis Humanism Award |url=https://conference.thoracic.org/about/conference-history/jrandall-curtis-humanism-award.php |website=American Thoracic Society |access-date=10 April 2026}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}} {{authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Halpern, Scott}} [[Category:Pingry School alumni]] [[Category:Duke University alumni]] [[Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania alumni]] [[Category:Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania faculty]] [[Category:21st-century American medical doctors]] [[Category:Members of the National Academy of Medicine]] [[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]] [[Category:Living people]]