Ari B. Friedman

Ari B. Friedman is an Assistant Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, with dual appointments in the Department of Emergency Medicine and the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and Core Faculty at the Center for Emergency Care Policy and Research.

• MD, The Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
• PhD, Health Care Management and Economics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• MS, Health Care Management and Economics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• BA, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Friedman’s research focuses on the industrial organization of unscheduled care systems, examining how primary care clinics, urgent care centers, and emergency departments interact. He investigates access to care, insurance implications, and the financial integration of population health into medical systems. His work has been cited over 1,500 times with an h-index of 14, appearing in journals like Health Affairs, The New England Journal of Medicine, and JAMA.

Recent publications highlight trends in applying machine learning to emergency triage (e.g., LAVA algorithms), addressing racial disparities in diagnostic imaging and opioid prescriptions, and evaluating privacy risks from third-party tracking on hospital websites. He also explores geriatric care transitions, dementia integration into CMS models, and digital health tools for cognitive assessments.

• Senior Fellow, Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics
• Fellow, Harvard Initiative for Global Health
• Fellow, Center for Emergency Care Policy and Research

His research bridges emergency care with health economics, emphasizing equity and data-driven decision-making. Current projects include validating large language models for cognitive testing and analyzing the impact of telemedicine expansion during the pandemic.