Distinguished Educator Award
Lawrence S. Friedman, MD, AGAF
Newton-Wellesley Hospital; Massachusetts General Hospital
Newton, MA
The AGA presents its Distinguished Educator Award to Lawrence S. Friedman, MD, AGAF, for his achievements as an outstanding educator over a lifelong career.
Dr. Friedman is the chair of the department of medicine at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Newton, MA, and assistant chief of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He is a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and Tufts University School of Medicine.
He has been an active member of AGA, and has served on a number of committees, including the Nominating Committee, the Public Policy Committee, the Public Affairs and Advocacy Committee, and the Finance and Operations Committee. He contributed to the direction of the AGA by serving as a member of the Strategic Planning Task Force, and was a member of the AGA Press Working Group. He currently serves as chair of the Digestive Disease Week® Council.
Dr. Friedman is a clinical scholar with an encyclopedic knowledge of the literature, which he incorporates into a lucid and accurate personal database that is communicated in his writing and teaching. He has an obvious love of learning which he imparts to everybody who has the good fortune to interact with him, be it a medical student, medical resident, gastroenterology fellow, faculty colleague or the audience member at a national course. Dr. Friedman has been at the forefront of developing educational programs and training in gastroenterology for virtually his entire postfellowship career.
Notably, Dr. Friedman has served in a number of positions that contribute extensively to education and training. He served as the chair of the Gastroenterology Training Committee on the Gastroenterology Core Curriculum Project, and more recently has been engaged in navigating the complex issues underlying fellowship as the chair of a multi-society task force on education and training. The recommendations of this task force were published in Gastroenterology and will serve as a durable platform for future re-evaluation of training. Dr. Friedman has been a past chair of the American Board of Internal Medicine, as well as the subspecialty of gastroenterology and on the Board of Directors. Dr. Friedman's involvement with other national medical organizations has included serving on the education committee for the American Association of the Study of Liver Diseases, on the education career and development subcommittee for the American College of Physicians and on the committee on training of the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy. He is the author of approximately 300 papers and chapters on all aspects of gastroenterology, co-editor of Sieisenger and Fordtran's Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease and Handbook of Liver Disease.
Dr. Friedman attended Princeton University, New Jersey, and received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, combined bachelors of art medical degree program. He did his residency training at Johns Hopkins Hospital, followed by a clinical and research fellowship in gastroenterology at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He served on the faculty of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, including as vice chairman of the department of medicine, then as a member of the gastrointestinal unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, where he also served as chief of the Walter Bauer firm on the Medical Service.
