Emily Friedman is an independent writer, lecturer, and health policy and ethics
analyst based in Chicago. She is contributing editor of "Hospitals and Health
Networks" and contributing writer for the "Journal of the American Medical
Association, Health Progress" and other periodicals. Ms. Friedman also writes
a regular column for "Hospitals & Health Networks Online". She was
contributing editor and ethics columnist for the "Health Forum Journal" from
1986 until July 2003, when the journal terminated publication. She is most
noted for her work in health policy, health care trends, health insurance and
managed care, the social ethics of health care, health care for the
underserved, health care history, population demographics, and the relationship
of the public with the health care system.
Ms. Friedman has written more than 750 articles and editorials in the past 30
years. She is the editor of the books "Making Choices: Ethics Issues for
Health Care Professionals" (American Hospital Publishing, 1986), "Choices and
Conflict: Exploration in Health Care Ethics" (American Hospital Publishing,
1992), and "An Unfinished Revolution: Women and Health Care in America" (United
Hospital Fund of New York, 1994). She authored "The Aloha Way: Health Care
Structure and Finance in Hawaii" (Hawaii Medical Service Association, 1993) and
"The Right Thing: Ten Years of Ethics Columns from the Healthcare Forum
Journal" (Jossey-Bass, 1996). She also writes on health care for the "World
Book Encyclopedia Yearbook" and the "Encyclopedia of Bioethics". Ms. Friedman
is currently writing a history of health care in the state of Minnesota.
A prolific public speaker, she addreses audiences ranging from state
legislatures to pharmaceutical professionals to community groups to hospital
and health system leaders and health care associations. She has also lectured
at many universities, including Harvard, Princeton, the University of
California - Berkley, 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 Adjunct Assistant Professor of Bioethics, 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 many radio and television appearances, including
on "ABC News Nightline".
She has won many awards and honors, including being named an Honorary Life
Member of the American Hospital 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 Planning and
Marketing. The annual Emily Friedman award is given for improvements in
community health by Community Health Parners, Charleston, South Carolina.
In addition, she 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 Publications Editors (the highest award that the Association grants).
In August 2002 and again in August 2004, 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" named her one of the "Top 25
Women in Healthcare".
She is an avid photographer with several record album and CD covers to her
credit. Her other hobbies include poetry, ethnic cooking, hiking and support
and preservation of traditional folk music and culture.
Ms. Friedman is originally from Los Angeles. In 1968 she received a B.A.
degree in English, with honors, from the University of California at Berkeley.
