Dr. Lipkin received his AB degree magna cum laude in molecular biology from Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and garnered his medical degree at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill, and served as resident and instructor in medicine and psychiatry at Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York. While at Strong, Dr. Lipkin was also awarded a United States Public Health Service fellowship in medicine and psychiatry.

In 1979, as visiting research fellow at the Rockefeller Foundation (RF), Dr. Lipkin edited 5 books, including Psychosocial Aspects of Primary Care, Use and Abuse of Medicine, and Primary Care Research, developed RF’s program in the Health of Populations, which created centers of training for clinical epidemiology, and trained more than 325 clinical epidemiology faculty and divisions in developing countries (now known as INCLEN).

As founding president and chairman of the American Academy on Physician and Patient, he created a faculty development program—the “Lipkin” model of psychosocial education—and a model curriculum. For these endeavors and his “significant clinical innovation,” he received the Rosenthal Award of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Lipkin has lectured on 3 continents, written or edited 11 books, and authored more than 130 articles and book chapters on the topics of psychosocial issues in primary care, the medical interview, doctor-patient relationship, medical education, and research methods in these fields.

As director of the Division of Primary Care at NYU and Bellevue, Dr. Lipkin played a central role in the initial response efforts to the World Trade Center disaster. Subsequently, he led the development of professional and administrative staff support processes, speaking to more than 1200 physicians about disaster response management, and spearheading dozens of support groups. At the request of the New York City (NYC) Mayor’s Office and Department of Health, he planned and has organized the development of Disaster Medical Outreach, a team of selected physicians providing primary care to the families, victims, survivors, and assistance workers at the NYC Family Assistance Center, Ground Zero, and other sites.