Center for HealthCare Governance - Speaker

Emily Friedman


Emily Friedman is an independent writer, lecturer, and health policy and ethics analyst based in Chicago. She is contributing editor of Hospitals & 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 Weekly. She is most noted for her work in health policy, health care "reform," health care trends, health insurance and coverage issues, the social ethics of health care, ethics issues for providers and leaders, health care for the underserved, health care history, population demographics and their implications for health care, and the relationship of society with the health care system.

Ms. Friedman has written more than 750 articles and editorials in the past 32 years. She is the editor of the books Making Choices: Ethics Issues for Health Care Professionals (American Hospital Publishing, 1986), Choices and Conflict: Explorations 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 addresses audiences ranging from state legislators to allied health professionals to nursing and medical groups 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 - 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 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, 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, 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 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 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 writing poetry, ethnic cooking, hiking, and support and preservation of traditional folk music and culture.

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.

Public Speaking

All of Ms. Friedman's presentations are developed specifically for a given audience, after consultation with the appropriate parties. She thus does not offer standardized or "canned" talks. Some of her presentations are accompanied by PowerPoint audiovisuals.

Presentation/Facilitation Topics

  • Health care reform: will it happen, and what will it look like?
  • Physician well-being: Taking care of the caregivers so they can take care of patients
  • Comparative effectiveness: Model, metaphor, or muddle?
  • Health policy: what it is, how it works (and doesn't), and what providers can do to influence it
  • Coverage, access, and recent health reform initiatives
  • The politics and ethics of health care reform 
  • Forces reshaping 21st century health care
  • Working together to improve community health: breaking down the barriers
  • Medicaid: past, present, and future
  • The aging of America and the future of Medicare
  • Leadership, change, and the profession of medicine
  • The future of coverage and access for children
  • The ethical responsibilities of the health care professional
  • The ethics of technology: issues for trustees
  • The health care system and the family caregiver: challenges and hopes
  • The new push for quality improvement: do we mean it this time? 
  • Ethics challenges and opportunities for trustees
  • Ethics issues for health care leaders and organizations
  • What is leadership in health care?
  • Is the future bright for women in health care leadership?
  • Health care and conscience: does mission matter?
  • Ethics for professionals in aging services
  • The ethics of health care information technology
  • Lessons from the past: what health care history teaches us about policy
  • Challenges to improving outcomes of care and health status
  • Hospitals under fire: tax status, community benefit, and the uninsured
  • Wild cards: dealing with the unexpected in health care
  • The future of public and private health coverage
  • Skyrocketing health care costs: causes and consequences
  • Demographic change: implications for health care and the health professions
  • The ethics crisis in health care and what to do about it
  • Forces reshaping 21st century health care
  • Ethics issues in women's health care
  • The challenge of the nursing shortage and other work force needs
  • "Consumer-directed" health care and its implications
  • The end of life: Ethics, policy, and politics

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Center for HealthCare Governance - Speaker