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Paola Friedrich, MD, MPH
Paola Friedrich, MD, MPH

Paola Friedrich, MD, MPH

Assistant Member, St. Jude Faculty

  • Director, Mexico Region, St. Jude Global

Departments

Education

BS - University of Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2001)
MD - University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine, San Juan, Puerto Rico (2005)
MPH - Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts (2013)

Honors & Awards

  • 2005 Faculty Award “Dr. Jaime Benitez Rexach”, University of Puerto Rico School of Medicine
  • 2005 Election to Alpha Omega Alpha (Honor Medical Society)
  • 2013 Latino Achiever Award, Latino Heritage Committee and Human Resources, Boston Children’s Hospital

Research Interests

  • Global pediatric oncology; improving childhood cancer outcomes in low-and middle-income countries through focus on metrics, health systems, and priority-setting
  • Clinical effectiveness; development of resource-level tiered systems in global pediatric oncology, resembling the well-established neonatal intensive care and trauma center levels
  • Health disparities; role of social determinants of health as drivers of outcome disparities between populations in order to identify and address them
  • Pediatric solid tumors; optimizing treatment for children, adolescents and young adults with solid tumors 

Selected Publications

Denburg AE, Ramirez A, Pavuluri S, McCann E, Shah S, Alcasabas T, Antillon F, Arora R, Fuentes-Alabi S, Renner L, Lam C, Friedrich P, Maser B, Force L, Galindo CR, Atun R. Political priority and pathways to scale up of children cancer care in five nations. PLoS One Aug 19;14(8):e0221292, 2019. eCollection 2019.

Cohen P, Friedrich P, Lam C, Jeha S, Metzger M, Quaddoumi I, Naidu, P, Faughnan L, Rodriguez-Galindo, C, Bhakta, N. No Cure Without Chemotherapy: Global Access to Essential Medicines for Childhood Cancer. Journal of Global Oncology 4:1-11. December 2018

Friedrich P, Guerra-García P, Stetson A, Duncan C, Lehmann L. Young female donors do not increase the risk of graft versus host disease or impact overall outcomes in pediatric HLA-matched sibling hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Biol Blood Marrow Transplant Jan;24(1):96-102, 2018

Power-Hays A, Friedrich P, Fernandez G, Cruz A, Marcus K, Rodriguez-Galindo, C, Collado L. Delivery of radiation therapy in resource-limited settings: A pilot quality assessment study. Pediatr Blood Cancer 64:e26480, 2017. DOI: 10.1002/pbc.26480 2017

Friedrich P, Lam CG, Kaur G, Itriago E, Ribeiro R, Ramandeep A. Determinants of treatment abandonment in childhood cancer: Results from a global survey. PLoS One 11(10):e0163090, 2016. PMCID: PMC5063311

Gupta S, Aitken JF, Bartels U, Brierley J, Dolendo M, Friedrich P, Fuentes-Alabi S, Garrido GP, Gatta G, Gospodarowicz M, Gross T, Howard S, Molyneaux E, Moreno F, Pole JD, Pritchard-Jones K, Ramirez O, Ries LAG, Rodriguez-Galindo C, Shin HY, Steliarova-Foucher E, Sung L, Supriyadi E, Swaminathan R, Torode J, Vora T, Kutluk T, Frazier L. Paediatric cancer stage in population-based cancer registries: the Toronto consensus principles and guidelines. Lancet Oncology April (17): e163-e172, 2016.

Venkatramani R, Pan H, Furman WL, Marron JM, Haduong J, Friedrich P, Mahajan A, Bavle A, Wu H, Chintagumpala M. Multimodal treatment of pediatric esthesioneuroblastoma. Pediatric Blood & Cancer E-pub: Oct 30, 2015. Mar, 63(3):465-70, 2016.

Truong B, Green A, Friedrich P, Ribeiro K, Rodriguez-Galindo C. Ethnicity, Race, and Socioeconomic Status Influence Extent of Disease and Outcomes in Retinoblastoma in the United States – A Population-Based Study. JAMA Pediatrics Oct 5:1-9, 2015.

Friedrich P, Lam CG, Itriago E, Pere R, Ribeiro R, Ramandeep A. Magnitude of Treatment Abandonment in Childhood Cancer. PLOS One Sept 30;10(9), 2015.

Rodriguez-Galindo C, Friedrich P, Alcasabas P, Antillon F, Banavali S, Castillo L, Israels T, Jeha S, Harif M, Sullivan M, Chong Quah T, Patte C, Pui CH, Barr R, Gross T. Towards the Cure of All Children with Cancer Through Collaborative Efforts: Pediatric Oncology as a Global Challenge. Journal of Clinical Oncology Sept 20;33(27):3063-73, 2015. E-pub: August 24, 2015.

Gomez-Garcia W, Friedrich P. Primary Non-metastatic Epithelioid Sarcoma of Lumbar Vertebra L3: Pediatric Case Report and Brief Review of the Literature. Journal of Tumors 3(2):314-319, 2015.

Friedrich P, Steinfield E, Kim F, Hays M, Lehmann L, Sprinz P. Lessons learned from talking with parents about the role of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in the treatment of children with sickle cell disease. American Journal of Health Education May; 46(3):144-156, 2015.

Friedrich P, Ortiz R, Fuentes S, Gamboa Y, Ah Chu-Sanchez MS, Arambú C, Montero M, Báez F, Rodríguez-Galindo C, Antillón-Klussmann F. Barriers to effective treatment of pediatric solid tumors in middle-income countries: Can we make sense of the spectrum of non-biological factors that influence outcomes? Cancer Jan 1;120(1):112-25, 2014. E-pub: Oct 16, 2013.

Rodriguez-Galindo C, Friedrich P, Morrissey L, Frazier L. Global challenges in pediatric oncology. Curr Opin Pediatr 25(1):3-15, 2013.

Friedrich P, McCall N, Shad A. Pediatric Cancer Units and Optimization of Resources . In: In Pediatric Hematology-Oncology in Countries with Limited Resources: A Practical Manual (eds. Cristina Stefan and Carlos Rodriguez-Galindo). Springer; p. 37-63, 2013. 

Friedrich P, Ortiz R, Strait K, Fuentes S, Gamboa Y, Arambú I, Ah-Chu-Sanchez M, London W, Rodríguez-Galindo C, Antillón-Klussmann F, Báez F. Pediatric sarcoma in Central America: Outcomes, challenges, and plans for improvement. Cancer Feb 15;119(4):871-9, 2013. E-pub: Sep 12, 2012.

Mostert, S, Arora RS, Arreola, M, Bagai, P, Friedrich, P, Gupta, S, Kaur, G, Koodiyedath, B, Kulkarni, K, Lam, C, Luna-Fineman, S, Pizer B, Rivas, S, Rossell, N, Sitaresmi MN, Tsimicalis A, Weaver, M, Ribeiro, R. Comment: Abandonment of Treatment for Childhood Cancer: Position Atatement of a SIOP PODC Working Group. The Lancet Oncology 12(8):719-720, 2011. 

Last update: February 2020

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