Ferdinando Mirarchi, DO

The chief executive officer and chief medical officer of MIDEO Health Technologies, LLC.

About

Ferdinando Mirarchi is the chief executive officer and chief medical officer of MIDEO Health Technologies, LLC. He is the principal investigator of the TRIAD (The Realistic Interpretation of Advance Directives) Research Series, which identified a significant patient safety risk involving the misinterpretation of living wills, DNR orders, and Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLST).

His research has been featured by The New York Times, The Washington Post, and other national media outlets, and it led to the development of MIDEO (My Informed Decision on VidEO), an evidence-based video advance directive and portable physician medical order designed to clarify patient wishes and improve emergency decision-making.

He is a reviewer for leading peer-reviewed journals, including CHEST, JAMA, and JAGS, serves on the editorial board of Patient Safety magazine, and authored Understanding Your Living Will. A fellow of both the American College of Emergency Physicians and the American Academy of Emergency Medicine, he previously held multiple leadership positions at UPMC Hamot and chaired the national palliative care committee at US Acute Care Solutions.

He shares updates on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and X.

On The Podcast by KevinMD

Your living will could get you too much care, or too littleOct 21, 2026

Latest articles

Physician voices

Does a DNR order mean do not intubate? Not always

Ferdinando Mirarchi, DO

November 4, 2026Nov 4, 20265

A 49-year-old man was alive because emergency physicians had saved his life once before. Now, three years later, another emergency physician saved his life again. But instead of a thank you, this physician and the hospital that saved his life…

It all began with nine words reportedly spoken by another physician: “That damn ER doctor should have never intubated you.”

Sometimes when you …

Physician voices

How a misread living will led to a 6-day court fight

Ferdinando Mirarchi, DO

October 15, 2026Oct 15, 2026

Six days. $20,000 in legal fees. One advance directive (living will) applied too soon. A 60-year-old man suffered complications after cardiac catheterization, developing acute kidney injury from the intra-arterial dye and pulmonary edema requiring intubation. Serious? Yes. Reversible? Yes. The…

Six days. $20,000 in legal fees. One advance directive (living will) applied too soon.

A 60-year-old man suffered complications after cardiac catheterization, developing acute kidney injury from the intra-arterial dye and pulmonary edema requiring intubation. Serious? Yes. Reversible? Yes.

The patient just needed short-term ventilatory support and temporary dialysis. The plan, consent, and scheduling of a temporary dialysis catheter ensued. Then his advance directive was found.

The attending physician concluded the patient should …

Conditions and diseases

Why problems with advance directives keep harming patients

Ferdinando Mirarchi, DO & Thaddeus Mason Pope, JD, PhD

July 28, 2026Jul 28, 2026

This is why we get it wrong As clinicians, we were taught that advance directives (ADs) and Portable Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLSTs) protect patient autonomy. So, we encourage our patients to complete them. Hospitals and health systems promote and…

This is why we get it wrong

As clinicians, we were taught that advance directives (ADs) and Portable Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment (POLSTs) protect patient autonomy. So, we encourage our patients to complete them. Hospitals and health systems promote and measure our efforts. Public and private insurers pay for it. And policymakers celebrate them.

But these familiar tools upon which we so heavily rely at the end of life have been creating …