Honorary Degree Candidate and Keynote Speaker: Richard M. Frankel, Ph.D.

Richard M. Frankel, Ph.D., is a professor of medicine and geriatrics at Indiana University School of Medicine (IUSM) where he directs the Advanced Scholars Program for Internists in Research and Education (ASPIRE) and is also a senior research scientist at Regenstrief Institute. He also holds a faculty appointment in the Education Institute at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine.

Dr. Frankel is trained as a qualitative researcher whose interests include the doctor-patient relationship, quality and safety in healthcare, and organizational culture change. He is the co-author of “The Four Habits of Highly Effective Clinicians,” an approach to communicating with patients that has been used to train upwards of 25,000 physicians in the U.S. and abroad.  Demonstrated competence in the Four Habits is currently required for medical licensure in Norway.   

In addition to his research interests, Dr. Frankel has been a medical educator for the past 40 years. He was the co-director of the internal medicine residency program at Highland Hospital/University of Rochester, and while there served as co-director of the Program in Advanced Biopsychosocial Medicine. For a decade at IUSM, he was the state-wide director of the school’s professionalism competency, also serving on the admissions and student promotions committees.       

Dr. Frankel completed his undergraduate studies at Colgate University and obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. He completed postdoctoral training at Boston University, was a Fulbright Senior Research Fellow in Uppsala, Sweden, and is a founding Fellow of the Academy for Communication in Healthcare.

He has held a dozen visiting professorships, published more than 300 scientific papers and has edited seven books.  The Gold Foundation recently established an award in Dr. Frankel’s name for “Creating A Loving Community.”