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Richard A. Demme, M.D.

Contact Information

Phone Numbers

Administrative: (585) 274-0202

Faculty Appointments

Biography

Dr. Richard Demme received BA degrees in Biology, and Greek and Roman Civilization at SUNY at Buffalo. He attended medical school at SUNY Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse on a scholarship from the US Air Force. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency training at Wilford Hall US Air Force Medical Center, followed by Nephrology training at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, in the Harvard program.

Dr. Demme has been a board certified nephrologist for over 20 years. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Humanities and Bioethics at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC). His outpatient care focuses on treatments for kidney transplant and dialysis patients. Dr. Demme recently completed 6 years on the national UNOS transplant ethics committee.

Dr Demme is the Director of the Strong Memorial Hospital Clinical Ethics Consult Service, the URMC Bioethics Program Director, and has been Chair of the University of Rochester Medical Center Ethics Committee since 2002. He is Co-Director of the Division of Medical Humanities and Bioethics.

Areas of interest include ethical issues in transplantation, decision-making at the end of life, forensic Nephrology, medical history, and the use of movies in education.

Over the past several years, he has collected over 350 movies that mention or demonstrate issues about organ retrieval and transplantation. He uses clips from these movies to introduce transplant topics for conversation and education.

Credentials

Education

1983
BA | St Univ at Buffalo
Biology

1987
MD | SUNY Upstate Medical Center
Medicine

Post-doctoral Training & Residency

09/01/1990 - 06/30/1993
Fellowship in Nephrology at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center-Main Campus

09/01/1988 - 06/30/1990
Residency in Internal Medicine at Wilford Hall Medical Center/CM

09/01/1987 - 06/30/1988
Internship in Internal Medicine at Wilford Hall Medical Center/CM

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Awards


1979-$10,000 Westinghouse Family Scholarship (one of four national recipients)


1983-Honors Biology Research Program


1983 Summa cum laude, State University of New York at Buffalo


1983-Phi Beta Kappa


1983-Alpha Epsilon Delta


1983 Air Force Health Professions Scholarship Program


1996 Air Force Commendation Medal


1996 David Grant Medical Center Nominee for the Archie Hoffman award for Academic Medicine Excellence in Internal Medicine


1999 Air Force Commendation Medal, Oakleaf Cluster

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Publications

Journal Articles

1/2011
Demme, RA. Rochester. "Wrong to Force Organ Donations." Democrat and Chronicle. Opinion page. 2011; .

2011
Reid T, Demme RA, Quill T. "When There Are No Good Choices: Illuminating the Borderland Between Proportionate Palliative Sedation and Palliative Sedation to Unconsciousness. Pain Manage.,". 2011; 1(131-40).

2010
Demme RA. "Ethical Concerns About an Organ Market." J Natl Med Assoc. 2010; 102: 46-50.

Books & Chapters

2001
Book Title: The Ethics of Xenotransplantation
Author List: Demme,RA
Edited By: Edited by Wayne Shelton and John Balint
Published By: Elsevier Science Inc, ISBN: 07623-0764-1 2001

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