Professor of Medicine; Indiana University
Associate Chief; Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics
Investigator; Indiana University Center for Aging Research, Regenstrief Institute
Director; Daniel F. Evans Center for Spiritual and Religious Values in Healthcare
Dr. Alexia Torke is a 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 at Regenstrief Institute. She is also an Associate Director with the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Innovation Officer for 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 and following completion, 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. Dr. Torke completed further training at the University of Chicago from 2005-2007 through a fellowship in Primary Care Health Services Research and Ethics, funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration.
Dr. Torke’s research focuses on ethical aspects of medical decision making for older adults. While at Emory University, her research addressed end-of-life decision making for hospitalized adults, including communication and spiritual aspects of care. Her current research focuses on surrogate decision making for older adults with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment, including the roles of spirituality, ethical reasoning and communication. Her research has been published in Archives of Internal Medicine, the Journal of General Internal Medicine and the Journal of Clinical Ethics. After joining the Charles Warren Fairbanks Center for Medical Ethics as Fellowship Director in July 2007, Dr. Torke developed a structured curriculum to help ethics fellows in the design, execution and completion of their scholarly projects.
