Patricia Miller Tereskerz, M.S., J.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor,
Center for Biomedical Ethics
434.243.6659
pjm7s@virginia.edu
Patti Tereskerz is an attorney and epidemiologist. She received her law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law and her Ph.D. and Master's degrees from the University of Virginia Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She also received her undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Virginia.
Tereskerz joined the Center for Biomedical Ethics in the fall of 2001. Previously, she served as Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine and Director of Health Law and Policy at the International Healthcare Worker Safety Center at UVA, where she was a recipient of the AORN Journal's Excellence in Research Award. Prior to joining the faculty of the Medical School, Tereskerz practiced law with Buck, Hogshire & Tereskerz, Ltd., in Charlottesville and remains of counsel with the firm, now Buck, Toscano &Tereskerz, Ltd. Before this, she served as Research Administrator for Hospital Epidemiology/Infection Control at the University of Virginia Medical Center and was Managing Editor of the Virginia Statewide Infection Control Report.
Tereskerz has over 70 publications in areas of both law and medical research, some of which have appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), and the Milbank Quarterly. She is also author of a recent handbook that was published on needlestick injuries and the law and is one of the authors of a book on the prevention and management of occupational exposure to HIV.
Tereskerz has served on various editorial boards, including Infection Control in Hospital Epidemiology and has served as Chief Editorial Advisor for Regulation for the Journal of Healthcare Safety & Compliance. She has also served as a member of the University of Virginia's Infection Control Committee. Her current area of research concentrates on conflicts of interest in both medical practice and research. She is principal investigator on two recently awarded grants: Divided Loyalties: Conflicts of Interest in Medicine, funded by the National Library of Medicine/National Institutes of Health, and Infected Physicians and Invasive Procedures: Development of National Policy Recommendations, funded by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.