Alexia M. Torke, MD

Bio

Dr. Torke is a Professor of Medicine and Section Chief of Palliative Medicine, Indiana University School of Medicine. She is Director of the Evans Center, which conducts research and education on religion and spirituality in healthcare, and a Research Scientist with the Indiana University Center for Aging Research at Regenstrief Institute. Dr. Torke received her undergraduate degree from Carleton College and her M.D. from Indiana University. She completed residency in Primary Care-Internal Medicine at Emory University in Atlanta, GA and fellowship training at the University of Chicago from 2005-2007 in Primary Care Health Services Research and Ethics. Dr. Torke's research focuses on spiritual, religious, ethical, and communication aspects of medical decision making for older adults, including surrogate decision making for older adults with dementia and other forms of cognitive impairment. Recent studies include a randomized trial of spiritual care in the ICU setting and advance care planning for older adults in the community. Her research focuses on populations that are diverse in terms of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender identify and has explored the healthcare experiences of underrepresented groups. She led the first position statement on the care of LGBTQ+ older adults from the American Geriatrics society. She has received funding from the NIH, the Greenwall Foundation and other foundation sources. She is currently the Chair of the NIH Clinical Management in General Care Setting Study Section and is the Co-Director of the Training Core for the NIH funded IMPACT Collaboratory, focused on the conduct of embedded pragmatic clinical trials in dementia. She practices outpatient palliative care at IU Health North Hospital.