Robert Friedman, MD

A physician who trained at Harvard and Stanford, Dr. Friedman spent a few years with Octo Barnett at Massachusetts General Hospital (where he contributed to the early development of Computer-Stored Ambulatory Record, COSTAR) before moving in 1974 to a faculty position in the Department of Medicine at Boston University. Within a few years, he had formed the Medical Information Systems Unit (MISU), an important center for innovation in applied clinical systems that continues to this day. Dr. Friedman is now professor of medicine and professor of public health at Boston University while he continues to direct the MISU. The MISU was one of the first research and development units, in academia or elsewhere, that created systems to help patients and consumers make important lifestyle and other health behavior changes. The Unit has been a pioneer in the development of automated systems for patients with chronic disease to help them self-manage their conditions, to assist their clinicians in monitoring their conditions, and identifying clinical problems that require medical intervention. The research has demonstrated that chronic disease management systems lead to improved health outcomes and reduced health services utilization and costs. This research has stimulated the development of a new subdiscipline: behavioral informatics. Dr. Friedman has also led important research efforts in the integration of the structure of a clinical trial within an electronic medical record (EMR), enabling the system to instantiate specific protocols and to execute them by monitoring the EMR of participating study patients and then alerting participating clinicians when appropriate. A frequent presenter at our annual AMIA Symposia, Dr. Friedman offers a unique union of clinical excellence, scholarly leadership, and practical insights that have been important to the evolution of our field.