Mohammadreza Hojat, PhD

Mohammadreza Hojat, PhD, Research Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, and Director of the Jefferson Longitudinal Study of Medical Education, Asano-Gonnella Center for Research in Medical Education & Health Care, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, PA, USA. He received his bachelor’s degree in educational psychology from Pahlavi University (currently University of Shiraz), his master’s degree in psychology from the University of Tehran in Iran, and his doctoral degree in psychological services from the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Hojat is a licensed psychologist in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and has published more than 290 articles in peer-reviewed journals and 13 book chapters on educational, psychological, and social issues. Dr. Hojat has led the development of 10 psychometrically sound instruments (including the Jefferson Scale of Empathy) for the assessment of health professions education and patient outcomes, and professional development of health professionals-in-training and in-practice. Dr. Hojat’s research on measurement, development, erosion, enhancement, group differences, and correlates of empathy in health professions education and patient care has received broad media coverage, featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer, National Public Radio, and television program segments.

Dr. Hojat received the Lifetime Achievement Award for his research in clinical empathy at the Global Empathy in Healthcare Network Symposium 2025, University of Leicester, United Kingdom. Dr. Hojat has served as a co-editor of the following books: Loneliness: Theory, Research, and Applications (Sage Publications, 1987), Assessment Measures in Medical School, Residency, and Practice: The Connections (Springer, 1993), and Fifty Years of Findings from the Jefferson Longitudinal Study of Medical Education (Springer, 2022), and a monograph on Personality Assessments and Outcomes in Medical Education and Practice of Medicine (2014, AMEE Guide No. 79). The original edition of his clinical empathy book, Empathy in Patient Care: Antecedents, Development, Measurement, and Outcomes was published in 2007, which was expanded in 2016 under a new title Empathy in Health Professions Education and Patient Care. The third updated and expanded edition of his seminal book: “Clinical Empathy: The Heart of Patient Care” was released in 2026.