Dr. Epstein, Medicine

Dr. Paul Epstein, clinical professor of medicine and noted expert in occupational pulmonary medicine, passed away March 12, 2009, at the age of 68 from pancreatic cancer.

Dr. Epstein was a graduate of Princeton University. He earned his medical degree from Tufts University. He trained in internal medicine at the University of Chicago and at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (HUP) in pulmonary medicine under Dr. Alfred P. Fishman. After his appointment to the faculty at Penn in 1973, Dr. Epstein served as director of the Pulmonary Fellowship Training Program until he left HUP to become chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the “new” Graduate Hospital in 1981. He built a highly respected academic practice there. Dr. Epstein returned to the Penn faculty in 1994 and built a practice in general and occupational pulmonary medicine at Penn Medicine, Radnor. During the course of his career, he evaluated nearly 20,000 individuals for pneumoconiosis. He lectured and wrote about coal workers’ lungs, silicosis, asbestosis-related lung disease and other related occupational lung diseases. In 2005, he testified influentially before the Senate Judiciary Committee on asbestosis and the Federal Employers’ Liability Act.

Concurrently, Dr. Epstein built a national and international reputation as a medical editor and educator in service to the American College of Physicians (ACP). He served as associate editor of the Annals of Internal Medicine from 1977 to 1997 and as deputy editor from 1997 to 2008. He also served as editor-in-chief of the ACP Medical Knowledge and Self Assessment Program (MKSAP) for the 12th and 13th editions, and as co-editor of the 14th edition of MKSAP. Dr. Epstein served as ACP governor of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Region from 2000 to 2006, and as president of the Pennsylvania College of Internal Medicine, the ACP Chapter for the state. He was the Laureate winner from the Pennsylvania Chapter in 2004. Dr. Epstein became a master of the American College of Physicians in 2007.

Dr. Epstein is survived by his wife, Marcia; and daughters, Robin and Amy.