Each October at ACEP’s annual Council meeting, the ACEP Council elects new leaders for the College. The Council, which represents all 53 chapters, 33 sections of membership, the Association of Academic Chairs in Emergency Medicine, the Council of Emergency Medicine Residency Directors, the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association, and the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine, will elect the College’s President-Elect, four members to the ACEP Board of Directors, the Council Speaker, and the Council Vice Speaker (Council officers are elected every other year). This month, we’ll meet the Board of Directors candidates, and in October, we’ll meet the candidates for Council officer positions.

Board of Directors

The following are candidates for the ACEP Board of Directors. They responded to the following question:

How do your skills, background, knowledge, or unique abilities complement the existing members of the Board?

Vidor Friedman, MD, FACEP (Florida)

Current Professional Positions: Florida Emergency Physicians, Maitland
Internships and Residency: emergency medicine residency, Michigan State University, East Lansing
Medical Degree: MD, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine (1986)

The Board is made up of a diverse group of individuals, each with a unique set of strengths. My experience in community practice, medical staff leadership, legislative advocacy, and clinical teaching allows me to see issues from many perspectives. Having been an owner in two different emergency medicine practices has given me a great deal of experience in consensus building among strong personalities, a useful skill on any board! As chief of staff at my hospital, I worked hard to improve collaboration among a diverse, and divided, medical staff. I chaired the Federal Governmental Affairs Committee from 2009 to 2011 while the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act was being hotly debated in Congress and among our membership! I then went on to help create the Emergency Medicine Action Fund to augment ACEP’s capacity in the regulatory lobbying arena.

As chair of the Emergency Medicine Foundation, I have pushed to increase our corporate partnerships and expanded our portfolio to include health policy research.

I understand that organizations, like people, must evolve and that the status quo should be questioned regularly to make sure it is still accomplishing its goals in the best possible way. It is also vital that an organization cultivate its new leaders. In Florida, I started FCEP’s Leadership Academy and have been very supportive of ACEP’s Leadership Development Committee.

To quote John Quincy Adams, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”