Joseph S. Alpert, MD

Joseph S. Alpert, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine and Medical Director of cardiac rehabilitation at the University of Arizona College of Medicine at Tucson. Dr. Alpert is board certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Alpert earned his undergraduate degree magna cum laude from Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, and his medical degree cum laude from Harvard Medical School, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He completed his internship, residency, and fellowship in medicine at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (now Brigham and Women’s Hospital) in Boston. After his fellowship, Dr. Alpert served as Staff Cardiologist and Director of the Coronary Care Unit at Naval Regional Medical Center San Diego, and Assistant Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Diego. Following his military service, Dr. Alpert returned to Boston as Director of the Samuel A. Levine Cardiac Unit at Brigham Hospital.  From 1978-1992 he was Director of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts.  From 1992-2006 he was Chief of Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.

Dr. Alpert is a Master of the American College of Physicians and a Fellow of the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the European Society of Cardiology.  He has received many awards for excellence in teaching from, among others the Peter Brent Brigham Hospital, the United States Navy, the University of Massachusetts, and the University of Arizona. In 2004, he received the Gifted Teacher Award from the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Alpert is a former member of the Board of Trustees of the American College of Cardiology and the Board of Directors of the American Board of Internal Medicine, and is currently a member of the Board of Trustees of the Association of Professors of Medicine. He is the current editor-in-chief of The American Journal of Medicine, and a member of the editorial boards of 12 cardiovascular and internal medicine journals, and an editorial reviewer for 15 internal medicine and cardiovascular disease journals. Dr. Alpert has authored and/or edited 50 books and monographs and more than 700 publications, including original articles, book chapters, reviews, and editorials. He is married to Qin Mary Chen, PhD who is a professor of pharmacology at the University of Arizona College of Medicine.  Dr. Alpert has two children, a daughter, Eva Elisabeth Alpert, a tax attorney and accountant living in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a son, Niels David Alpert, a cinematographer living in New York City.  Dr. Alpert has one grandchild, Josephine Helena Alpert living in Cambridge, Massachusetts. 

Professor of Medicine; Former Chairman of the Department of Medicine (1992-2006); Editor in Chief, The American Journal of Medicine