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Institute for Bioethics logo
Rene Claxton

Rene Claxton, MD, MS

Director of the Program on Humanistic Communication in Medicine

Professional Statement

Dr. Claxton earned her medical degree from the University of Florida College of Medicine, completed residency in internal medicine at the University of Virginia, completed a hospice and palliative medicine fellowship at UPMC and a master’s in medical education at the University of Pittsburgh. She is a professor of medicine in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine’s Division of General Internal Medicine, Section of Palliative Care.

Dr. Claxton specializes in teaching communication skills in the setting of serious illnesses and training educators to teach communication skills. She is a member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. In 2025, she was appointed the inaugural Director of the Program on Humanistic Communication in Medicine in the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Bioethics, where she leads a program to develop, deploy and assess a longitudinal communication skills training curriculum from UME to GME that will establish Pitt as a national leader in training humanistic physicians with strong capabilities in patient centered communication and shared decision making. As we prepare for a future where AI augmented medical care is the norm, we anticipate that these skills will elevate the humanistic side of medicine as a central component of the physician of the future.

Appointments

  • Professor of Medicine University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • Director, Education and Professional Development UPMC Palliative and Supportive Institute
  • Assistant Medical Director UPMC Community Palliative Care Programs
  • Director of the Program on Humanistic Communication in Medicine Institute for Bioethics

Education and Training

  • Hospice and Palliative Medicine Fellowship, UPMC, 2010
  • Master’s in Medical Education, MS, University of Pittsburgh, 2010
  • Internal Medicine Residency, University of Virginia, 2008
  • MD, University of Florida, 2005

Professional Interests in Bioethics

Representative Publications

  1. Christensen A, Spagnoletti C, Claxton R. A Curriculum Innovation on Writing Simulated Patient Cases for Communication Skills Education. MedEdPORTAL. 2021 Jan 12;17:11068. PMID: 33501374. Available at: https://www.mededportal.org/doi/10.15766/mep_2374-8265.11068

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  2. Chiarchiaro J, Arnold RM, Ernecoff NC, Claxton R, Childers JW, Schell JO. Serious Illness Communication Skills Training During a Global Pandemic. ATS Sch. 2021 Nov 16;3(1):64-75. doi: 10.34197/ats-scholar.2021-0074OC. PMID: 35634006; PMCID: PMC9131890.

  3. Weill SR, Layden AJ, Nabozny MJ, Leahy J, Claxton R, Zelenski AB, Zimmermann C, Childers J, Arnold R, Hall DE. Applying VitalTalkTM techniques to Best Case/Worst Case training to increase scalability and improve surgeon confidence in shared decision-making. J Surg Educ. 2022 Jul-Aug;79(4):983-992. doi: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2022.01.012. PMID: 35246401

  4. See J, Van Deusen R, Claxton R, Shenai N, Rothenberger SD, Donovan AK. CALMER Conflict: A Novel Curriculum for Graduating Medical Students to Manage and Defuse Patient-Provider Conflict. J Gen Intern Med. 2025 Jan;40(1):253-257.doi: 10.1007/s11606-024-08975-5.Epub 2024 Aug 5. PMID: 39103602.

  5. Bansal A, Noll A, Patel A, Claxton R, Rogal S, Arnold RM. GITalk: Communication Skills Training for Gastroenterology Fellows Improves Self-Assessed Preparedness for Serious Illness Conversations. J Palliat Medicine. 2025. doi: d10.21203/rs.3.rs-4298423/v1

  6. Lowry M, Pruskowski J, Claxton R, Berenbrok L. Course Development and Integration of a Skills-Based Assessment for an Elective Palliative Care Course. Am J Pharm Educ. 2025 Jun 19;89(8):101439. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpe.2025.101439.Online ahead of print. PMID: 40543655

Awards and Honors

  • Faculty Leadership Award, VitalTalk, 2025
  • UPMC Physician Excellence Award – Senior Physician Excellence in Clinical Care, UPMC, 2025
  • Eric G. Neilson, MD, Leadership in Specialty Internal Medicine Award, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, 2023
  • Robert Arnold Excellence in Teaching and Mentoring Award, Division of General Internal Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, 2023

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