Lawrence Friedman, M.D., became the first Medical Director of Ambulatory and Primary Care at UCSD in 1998. Since then, he has also become the Medical Director of Managed Care and Medical Director of Medical Group Quality and Safety. Much of his time is spent working with physician and administrative leadership in order to assure that UCSD meets or exceeds the highest clinical care standards and provides the best possible patient experience.
Dr. Friedman is Professor of Clinical Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Pediatrics. He is also the Co-Director of the UCSD Telemedicine Learning Center and Medical Director and co-founder of the Community Collaborative that provides free medical services to homeless and runaway youth.
In recent years, Dr. Friedman has been Chair of the University HealthSystem Consortium Ambulatory Care Steering Committee, served as a member of the Pay for Performance Implementation Advisory Committee at the National Quality Forum, and AHRQ study section member. Before assuming full time administrative responsibilities, Dr. Friedman had been the Division Chief for General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at UCSD.
Prior to arriving at UCSD in 1994, Dr. Friedman had been the acting Division Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Deaconess Hospital in Boston and a member of the faculty in the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He earned his medical degree at Georgetown University and completed internship and residency training at the Deaconess Hospital in Boston, followed by a General Medicine fellowship at Harvard Medical School.