Faculty & Staff
Alvin H. Moss, MD, Director
amoss@hsc.wvu.edu
Dr. Moss is the Director of the Center for Health Ethics and Law and a Professor of Medicine at the Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia University. He is a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He is a practicing internist and nephrologist.
His interest in medical ethics grew out of his involvement with renal dialysis and transplantation. He was a participant in the National Leadership Training Program for Physicians in Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago supported by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Dr. Moss is the chairman of the Hospital Ethics Committee and medical director of the Palliative Care Consultation Service at West Virginia University Hospitals. He is a member of the Guardianship Task Force of the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources and chaired the committee for the task force that drafted the Health Care Surrogate Act of 1993 and the Do Not Resuscitate Act. He is the Project Director of the West Virginia Initiative to Improve End-of-Life Care and is certified by the American Medical Association’s Education Program for Physicians in End-of-Life Care. He chaired the working group of the Renal Physicians Association and the American Society of Nephrology that developed the clinical practice guideline, “Shared Decision Making in the Appropriate Initiation of and Withdrawal from Dialysis.” His research interests include defining the appropriate use of life-sustaining treatment, dialysis ethics, advance care planning, and improving care at the end of life.
