Savitri Fedson, MD ’96, MA, is a professor of medicine and clinical ethics at the Michael E. DeBakey Houston VA Medical Center and the Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine. She is the medical director of the advanced heart failure/transplant program and co-chair of the Ethics Committee at the DeBakey VA.

Her research interests are in antibody mediated rejection, patient reported outcomes with decision making and the impact of frailty and physical conditioning in heart failure. Fedson also has interests in the ethics of scare resource allocation, the intersection of individual autonomy and public health, and patients’ decisions to discontinue device support.

In 2022, she co-authored new recommendations for the prevention, diagnoses, and management of patients with heart failure released by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association and Heart Failure Society of America Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines.

She has been a speaker at national and international heart failure and transplant meetings on topics such the integration of palliative care in cardiovascular disease, ethical dilemmas in candidacy for heart and multiorgan transplantation, and device termination for mechanical circulatory support.