Teaching the heart of medicine 

Dr. Edward Dunn on ethics, empathy and end-of-life care 

Edward Dunn, MD, ScD, MBA, MPH, MPA, has spent most of his life on a quest for knowledge, while on a mission to improve the lives of others. He has been a student, a teacher, a cardiothoracic surgeon, an administrator and even a legislative staffer for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy. 

But in his current role as the program director for the TidalHealth Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship — and key faculty teaching medical ethics to residents and fellows — he can share a lifetime of knowledge while also continuing to help patients. 

“All of us took an oath when we graduated from medical school to support our colleagues, and teach the next generation,” Dunn said. “That really started going back to ancient Greece. It's always been part of the ethos in the practice of medicine that you know you're not going to live forever, and you want to keep the profession going and maintain the quality, and you want to teach the next generation. So, I've always been interested in that and I've always enjoyed it. 

“It’s because I have learned from people who are not contaminated by experience, and who have a lot of really good questions. They make me a better doctor. So, it works both ways.” 

Dunn had always placed medical ethics in high regard, and as a surgeon, he was a member of ethics committees. As his career advanced, his interest in the subject increased. It was during a stint working in the Veterans Administration (VA), where he focused on patient safety, that he began to see how strongly the VA focused on medical ethics. That led to an ethics fellowship at the University of Chicago. 

“Ethics is fundamental to our professionalism,” Dunn said. “My patients trust me. What do they trust me with? To tell them the truth. To put their needs above my own personal needs. To be open to their questions, and to support them. Those things are basic to healthcare, and sometimes we forget about that. We have a duty to be honest with them. We have a duty to tell them what we know about their bodies in terms that they understand and to talk like a human, not an automaton.” 

During his time in Chicago, Dunn met many pediatric and adult palliative medicine doctors who were on the ethics committee. He began to see palliative medicine as an avenue to get back to his clinical roots and still focus on ethics — which is key to that discipline. He headed to Wright State University for a fellowship in hospice and palliative medicine with an eye on practicing and teaching. 

As the world has seen a negative shift in the ability of the public to communicate in a meaningful way outside of technology, it has become even more important to help teach doctors how to communicate ethically and effectively with patients — and that includes bad news. 

“We have to know how to talk about it because otherwise we’re not respecting their own right to decide what to do with their lives,” Dunn said. “They don’t have to accept what we recommend for their medical care. But we want the patients to know what their options are, then we can make recommendations. Everything goes back to our duty of care, and our duty of care has an ethical foundation going back to the 18^th century philosopher Emmanuel Kant.” 

Kant’s “categorical imperative” focused on the ideas of acting with a sense of “duty” or “good will” rather than personal desires or potential consequences. 

Even when the intention of a doctor is to do their best to connect with a patient, it can be a very difficult process. 

“During my career, I’ve seen doctors who are truly hopeless,” Dunn said. “They’re good technically, but they don’t know how to talk to people. They’re just not natural communicators and they don’t have the patience or the time to think it’s important enough to worry about it. They think that what they are hired to do is something technical and the patients will figure it out.” 

That’s where TidalHealth’s ethical training and the focus of the Hospice & Palliative Medicine Fellowship largely comes into play. Dunn knows it’s important to make an early impression on doctors who are more open to becoming the complete package. 

“I think you can learn, but you must have a mindset that makes you want to do it in the first place and be willing to take the time,” Dunn said. “I don’t think everyone is naturally empathetic, and some people just don’t care. It’s not a moral or an amoral thing — they just aren’t good at it.” 

“If you're not just sympathizing with their plight in life, but really trying hard to understand what it feels like to be in their shoes, then you can reach them at a deeper level. That's the kind of person that's on our team." 

Dunn joined TidalHealth in 2025 from the University of Louisville to build the Hospice & Palliative Care Fellowship and be closer to nine grandchildren in Washington, DC., and Wilmington, North Carolina.

Since his arrival, he has been focused on building a great team. He feels like he has the right mix of people to support patients, as well as the fellowship program, which will go a long way toward helping fellows learn to communicate in tough moments in the best way possible — practice. 

“If you want to learn how to do it better, then you come to us and you’ll shadow us and watch us do it,” Dunn said. “Like everything else, you become better with practice.”