Dr. Curtis completed a fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Washington where he also received his research training as a Clinical Scholar in the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. He is currently a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and Section Head for the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

Dr. Curtis' research interests focus on measuring and improving the quality of end-of-life care for persons with chronic diseases or critical illness. He is currently funded by two RO1 Awards from the National Institute of Nursing Research at the National Institutes of Health and he is a recipient of the K24 Award for mentoring clinical research trainees from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Dr. Curtis has received a number of awards and honors including the Roger C. Bone Award for Advances in End-of-life Care from the American College of Chest Physicians and the Grenvik Family Award for Ethics from the Society of Critical Care Medicine. He has authored or co-authored more than 100 peer-reviewed original research journal articles and more than 70 review articles, editorials, and book chapters. He is also the President of the American Thoracic Society, a premier scientific and professional society for pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine, for the 2009-2010 year.