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. 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 700 articles and editorials in the past 28 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 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 - 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, 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 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 August 2002, Modern Healthcare magazine named her one of the 100 most powerful people in health care.

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 fromLos Angeles. In l968 she received a B.A. degree in English, with honors, from the University of California at Berkeley.

This speaker's topics include: