On Thursday, October 12, Dr. Dubov successfully defended his dissertation thesis entitled “Emotions, intuitions, and risk perception in critical care.” Dubov's dissertation advisers were Dr. Henk ten Have MD, PhD, director of the Center for Healthcare Ethics at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, and Dr. Gerard Magill, PhD, Vernon Gallagher endowed chair. Dr. ten Have had previously served in UNESCO as Director for the Division of Ethics. Dr. Magill had established Bioethics program at the University of St. Louis, MO. Duquesne University is only one of a very few institutions offering PhD in Healthcare Ethics. Dubov's dissertation research explores decision-making in end-of-life care. In their last month of life, one in two Medicare beneficiaries visits an emergency department, one in three is admitted to an intensive care unit, and one in five has inpatient surgery. This statistic represents an important but unmet challenge in delivering end of life care, namely to increase the probability that the care patients receive in their last months is consistent with their goals, values, and preferences. A large body of research demonstrates that the majority of patients prefer less aggressive care and death at home to ER visits, ICU interventions, and hospital death. However, almost 50% of Americans die in a hospital. This mismatch between patient preferences and actual care received in their last days can be in part explained by emotional influences on communication and decision making. Caring for critically ill patients requires nearly constant decision making. Ideally, decision makers carefully consider the risks and benefits of each choice before settling on the option that maximizes the patient’s well-being. However, the emotions and time pressures of the ICU may exacerbate contextual barriers to rational choice, impact autonomous agency, and lead to suboptimal choices. Dubov's thesis underlines a need to understand and improve upon the ways in which end of life decisions are made. Instead of passively accepting emotional influences on choice, his thesis stresses the import.