Emily Friedman

Emily Friedman: Profile

She is most noted for her work in health policy, health care reform initiatives, rationing of health services, health care trends, insurance and coverage issues, the social ethics of health care, ethics issues for providers, care for the underserved, health care history, population demographics and their implications for health care, the lessons to be learned from international health care systems, and the relationship of society with the health care system.

Ms. Friedman has written more than 800 articles and editorials in the past 35 years. She is the editor of the books Making Choices: Ethics Issues for Health Care Professionals, Choices and Conflict: Explorations in Health Care Ethics, and An Unfinished Revolution: Women and Health Care in America.

She authored The Aloha Way: Health Care Structure and Finance in Hawaii and The Right Thing: Ten Years of Ethics Columns from the Healthcare Forum Journal. She also writes on health care for the World Book Encyclopedia Yearbook and the Encyclopedia of Bioethics. Among her current projects are a history of health care in Minnesota; an examination of the non-profit status of some hospitals and insurers; and a long-term study on the rebuilding of the Cambodian health care system after its destruction in the 1970s.

A prolific public speaker, she addresses audiences ranging from state legislators to allied health professionals to nursing and medical groups to community representatives to hospital and health system leaders and health care associations. She has also lectured at many universities, including Harvard, Princeton, the University of California - Berkeley, the University of California - San Diego, Ohio State, Yale, and the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill. In 1987-88, she was Rockefeller Fellow in Ethics at Dartmouth College. She also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Law, Bioethics, and Human Rights at the Boston University School of Public Health, which has repeatedly named her one of its highest-rated teachers. In addition, she is a consultant on information dissemination to the Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

She has made numerous radio and television appearances, including on ABC News's Nightline and National Public Radio shows.

Emily has won many awards and honors, including being named an honorary life member of the American Hospital Association, an honorary life member of the American Medical Association, a Fellow of Academy Health (formerly the Association for Health Services Research), and an honorary lifetime fellow of the American Academy of Medical Administrators. She has also received the Corning Award of the Society for Health Care Strategy and Market Development and the first Pioneer Award of the Colorado Hospital Association. The annual Emily Friedman Award is given for improvements in community health by Community Health Partners, Charleston, South Carolina.

In addition, Emily has won many writing awards. In 2003, her column, "Making Choices," in Health Forum Journal, won a National Award of Excellence from the American Society of Business Publication Editors (the largest competition in U.S. business publishing) and the Gold Award from the American Society of Healthcare Publication Editors (the highest award that the Association grants).

In 2002, 2004, and again in 2006, the readers of Modern Healthcare named her as one of the 100 most powerful people in the health care field. In April 2005, the editors of Modern Healthcare chose her as one of the "Top 25 Women in Healthcare." In January 2011 and 2012, she was named one of the “Top Five Speakers in Health Care” by Speaking.com.

Ms. Friedman is originally from Los Angeles. In l968 she received a B.A. degree in English, with honors, from the University of California at Berkeley.