Fall 1998
Articles
Reviews
1998 Award Recipients
1997 Award Recipients
Special Presentation
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Biographical Sketch of Stanford B.
Friedman, M.D.
C. Anderson Aldrich Award Winner
by Mary Ann Felice, M.D. FAAP, Baltimore,
MD
Dr. Stan Friedman was born in Seattle, Washington, but primarily grew up in New York
State, if one could ever consider Dr. Friedman as "grown up" with adult
attitudes. He received his B.A. degree in 1953 from Antioch College with a major in
Psychology. He received his medical degree in 1957 from the University of Rochester, an
institution that he considers his academic home. He completed his pediatric training and
was chief resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital.
In 1962, Dr. Friedman was appointed an Instructor in Pediatrics and Psychiatry at the
University of Rochester. In his first few years there, he had the good fortune to be
mentored by Dr. George Engel, who had a major influence upon his career and his academic
development. It was Dr. Engel and his colleagues who inspired and encouraged him to pursue
his interests in the relationship between physical disease and psychological issues. While
on the faculty at Rochester, he began the Adolescent Medicine Clinic at Strong Memorial
Hospital. Fellows who have trained with Dr. Friedman, and have had the audacity to
complain about barriers to providing patient care, are quickly reminded that in the 1960s,
he was told that there was no space to hold an adolescent clinic at Rochester. Therefore,
he began the clinic with Saturday morning and Wednesday evening sessions, which were
obviously low demand times for clinic space. Obviously, the program thrived. Dr. Friedman
has always had a reputation for rising to a challenge particularly when children’s
issues are at stake.
In 1973, Dr. Friedman was recruited to the University of Maryland at Baltimore, where
he was the Director of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Department
of Psychiatry and Head of the Division of Behavioral Pediatrics in the Department of
Pediatrics. While at the University of Maryland, Dr. Friedman not only directed two
programs in two different departments, but he also convinced the W.T. Grant Foundation to
fund a training program to teach behavior and development to pediatric residents. This
one-funded program then led to the funding of 11 other programs across the US.
In 1985, Dr. Friedman was recruited to North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset,
New York where he as Chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine and Behavioral
Pediatrics. In 1992, he joined the faculty of the Division of Adolescent Medicine at the
Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx where he is currently an Attending Physician and
Professor of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. At a time when many
faculty members find themselves slowing down, he continues to train fellows, conduct
research, and write prolifically.
Dr. Friedman’s research interests have always focussed on the interaction between
physical and behavioral issues in the production of disease. His research topics have
ranged from pathophysiologic work on stress in mice to the effects of chronic and fatal
illness in children and parents. Most recently, he has addressed the unique challenges of
being a cadet at West Point. In all these examples, his clinical research has been
directed toward an understanding of how people cope to adverse situations. His research
has been well funded, well written and well published. Dr. Friedman has approximately 180
published journal articles, chapters, and books.
Dr. Friedman not only writes well but he edits well. He has served on the editorial
boards of seven journals, and for 12 years, he was the Editor of the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.
Probably most of the people in the field of behavioral pediatrics have had a
"Friedman Editing Experience." This is usually a manuscript that has been
carefully drafted and redrafted by an author prior to being sent to Dr. Friedman for his
review. It is returned within three days covered with comments in red ink and barely
decipherable handwriting. After wading through pages of criticisms, most authors will find
the notation: "Nice job! I made a few minor suggestions!"
Dr. Friedman is a respected teacher and mentor. He has been a Visiting Professor for
the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Journal of Pediatrics, the Ambulatory Pediatric
Association, The Kroc Foundation, and the American Psychosomatic Society. These awards are
evidence of his outstanding abilities as a teacher. In 1978, he served as the Permanent
Consultant to the Task Force on Pediatric Education, a title which indicates the high
esteem and respect that his colleagues had for him and his dedication toward residency
education. He has personally trained more than 50 fellows and served as a mentor to scores
more residents and medical students. Fortunately, for many of us, once you are a Friedman
Fellow, you are always a Friedman Fellow, with benefit of mentoring and advocacy on the
Fellow’s behalf for many years.
Dr. Friedman has been a member of every professional organization in his field and
usually an officer of each of these organizations. He has received many outstanding
awards, such as the John and Mary R. Markle Scholarship in Academic Medicine, the
Outstanding Achievement in Adolescent Medicine Award from the Society for Adolescent
Medicine, and the Society for Behavioral Pediatrics Lectureship Award.
It is largely the result of the work and influence of Dr. Friedman that
the field of behavioral pediatrics has become an integral part
of modern pediatric departments and an accepted essential component
of pediatric residency training. Dr. Stanford B. Friedman is know
as the Father of Behavioral Pediatrics and well deserving of the
C. Anderson Aldrich Award from
the Section of Developmental Behavioral Pediatrics of the American
Academy of Pediatrics.
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