Jeffrey Trilling, MD

Associate Professor

Medical Humanities
Compassionate Care
Physician-Patient Relationship
Primary Care and Family Medicine

E-mail: Jeffrey.Trilling@stonybrookmedicine.edu

Although born in Manhattan and raised in the Bronx, it was in Fairbanks Alaska and its surrounding pristine wilderness that Dr Trilling began practicing primary care, as well as testing the waters of medical politics to eventually become President of the Alaska Academy of Family Physicians. With almost a decade of professional experience under his belt, coupled with a sense of nourishment and gratitude to have lived within the natural beauty of the Alaskan environment, he moved back to New York. In 1984, Dr Trilling joined the faculty at Stony Brook University School of Medicine as a physician educator, where he taught and practiced primary care medicine for 33 years; serving clinically, academically, and administratively in many capacities. He was Vice-Chair of Academic Affairs for the Department from 1994-1998 and its Director of Predoctoral Education from 1987-1993. Dr. Trilling developed and directed the Department’s Geriatric Program at LISVH, and served as course director for the Primary Care Clerkship for six years. He was medical director for the Department Residency’s Family Practice Center from 1985 to 1987. In 1998, he became Chair of the Department of Family Medicine for the medical school, Chief of Staff of Family Medicine for University Hospital, and President of the Stony Brook Primary Care Corporation. Dr. Trilling has multiple publications, national and international presentations. His research focus has been on the physician/patient relationship and the biopsychosocial model and their influence on "Readiness for Change in Chronic Illness" and Problem solving the Doctor-Patient Impasse in Primary Care. His online, peer-reviewed publications cover the scope of family medicine, but with an underlying thread of problem-solving at its core. After stepping down from an 18-year tenure as chair and retiring from clinical practice, he is currently writing and teaching within Stony Brook’s Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care and Bioethics within the Department of Family, Population & Preventive Medicine.

Recent publications:

The Circle of Change
Outskirts press
2023