Faculty Profile

Gary Freed

Gary L. Freed, MD, MPH

  • Percy and Mary Murphy Professor of Pediatrics
    Professor, Health Management and Policy
  • Director of Faculty Programs, Office of Health Equity and Inclusion
  • Associate Chair for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Government Relations
From 1998-2013, Dr. Freed served as director of the Division of General Pediatrics and founding director of the Children's Health Evaluation and Research Center. From 2013-2016, Dr. Freed divided his time between the University of Michigan and the University of Melbourne (Australia) where he served as director of the Australian Health Workforce Institute, professor of Population Health, and as visiting scholar in Health Care Policy at the Royal Children's Hospital. In 2016 Dr. Freed returned full time to the University of Michigan to continue his research in health policy and economic issues focused on children. Dr. Freed has more than 25 years of experience in children's health services research. He has been the principal investigator of numerous federal, state and foundation-funded grants, and of the first pediatric health services research fellowship program funded by the National Institutes of Health. He has published more than 275 peer-reviewed articles on child health policy and health economics, immunizations, physician behavior, the medical workforce and interspecialty variation in the provision of preventive services to children.

He is a past president of the Society for Pediatric Research, the largest research society in the field of child health. SPR awarded him its 2009 Douglas K. Richardson Lifetime Achievement Award for Perinatal and Pediatric Health Care Research. Dr. Freed serves on several national and international committees regarding child health. He is past chair of the Department of Health and Human Services National Vaccine Advisory Committee. He is a frequent consultant to state and federal agencies as well as to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and to the World Health Organization. He is a member of the American Board of Pediatrics and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

  • BA, Biology, The University of Texas at Austin, 1983, with honors
  • MD, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, 1987
  • MPH, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH), 1992
  • Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program, UNC-CH, 1990-1992

Research Interests:
Immunization policy, health policy and health economics for children, children's health services research.

Research Projects:
Pediatric Sickle Cell Improvement Collaborative: In partnership with the University of Michigan project team, Michigan Medicaid is establishing a pilot SCD Quality Improvement program in Southeast Michigan. Sponsor: Michigan Health Endowment Fund

Program on Equity in Child Health at Mott Hospital: This Program provides the first critical steps in beginning a process to assess the perceptions of inequities at Mott Hospital. If inequities are found, the Quality Improvement Department at Mott Hospital will design and implement QI programs to address them. Sponsor: Children’s Foundation, Poverty Solutions

C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health: The C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health (Mott Poll) measures parental attitudes, experiences and priorities regarding health-related issues and trends for US children.

QMETRIC Implementation & Quality Improvement: A multi-phase project designed to close quality gaps in the delivery of health care to children through careful assessment of provided services Sponsor: National Quality Forum

Byrne BJ, Frintner MP, Starmer AJ, Gottschlich EA, Freed GL. Different Measures and Ways to Categorize Pediatrician Burnout and the Association with Satisfaction. Journal of Pediatrics. 2022 Jun 1:S0022-3476(22)00517-0. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2022.05.046. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 35660489. 
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35660489/

Freed GL. Actionable lessons for the US COVID Vaccine Program. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research. 2021 Feb 19;10(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s13584-021-00452-2. PMID: 33608052; PMCID: PMC7893132. 
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33608052/

Weyand AC, Nichols DG, Freed GL. Current Efforts in Diversity for Pediatric Subspecialty Fellows: Playing a Zero-sum Game. Pediatrics. 2020 Nov;146(5):e2020001248. doi: 10.1542/peds.2020-001248. Epub 2020 Oct 16. PMID: 33067344.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33067344/

Freed GL. Bias in Physician Workforce Research. Pediatrics. 2019 Sep; 144(3):e20190469. doi: 10.1542/peds.2019-0469. Epub 2019 Aug 16. PMID: 31420370.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31420370/

Freed GL, Boyer DM, Van KD, Macy ML, McCormick J, Leslie LK. Variation in Part-Time Work among Pediatric Subspecialties. Journal of Pediatrics. 2018 Apr;195:263-268. doi: 10.1016/j.jpeds.2017.11.060. Epub 2018 Feb 1. PMID: 29395185.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29395185/

Freed GL, Das A. Nixon or Obama: Who Is the Real Radical Liberal on Health Care? Pediatrics. 2015 Aug;136(2):211-4. doi: 10.1542/peds.2015-1122. Epub 2015 Jul 13. PMID: 26169434.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26169434/

Freed GL, Sewell J, Spike N, Moran L, Brooks P. Changes in the demography of Australia and therefore general practice patient populations. Australian Family Physician. 2012 Sep;41(9):715-9. PMID: 22962651.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22962651/

Freed GL, Stockman JA. Oversimplifying primary care supply and shortages. JAMA. 2009 May 13;301(18):1920-2. doi: 10.1001/jama.2009.619. PMID: 19436019.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19436019/

Email: gfreed@umich.edu
Office: 734-647-3610
Fax: 734-232-1400

Address:
NCRC Building 16, G034E
2800 Plymouth Road
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2800