Emily Friedman

To honor the memory of Emily Friedman, we are reprising one of her timeless columns. This one focuses on patients seeking ever-more controversial rights. How should providers respond?

Theoreticians and policy wonks can pontificate endlessly, but there is nothing like being a patient to learn about what is right and wrong with our health care system.

Physician-assisted suicide, access to unapproved drugs and refusal to inoculate children — patients are seeking ever-more controversial rights. How should providers respond?

Many new pharmaceuticals cost nearly $100,000 a year. Insurers are complaining and patients are priced out of the market. Will this lead to another debate about rationing?

Overprescribing powerful prescription pain medications, intentionally or unintentionally, is a national epidemic, according to the CDC.

A radiology technician addicted to an opiate exposes hundreds of patients to hepatitis C. A pediatric nurse murders infants and young children. A physician becomes a poisoner. Although there have been serial killers in health care for more than 100 years (Henry Holmes, one of this country's most prolific murderers, was a physician), we still can't seem to readily identify and stop them. When will enough be enough?

Medicaid experiments test new ways to extend coverage.

State health officials detail efforts to use the power of the purse to change provider behavior.

One of the Affordable Care Act's key features — health insurance exchanges where the uninsured and others can shop for coverage — is now in effect. It's likely to be an interesting experience for all concerned. What are the potential obstacles and opportunities?

People have been arguing about care at the end of life for decades. We now have hospice, palliative care and physician-assisted suicide (the latter is legal in Montana, Oregon, Vermont and Washington), but the battle goes on. The questions are, "What's best for the patient?" and "Why can't we get there?"

The success of population health improvement initiatives will depend not on payment policy or inspirational models, but on the hearts and minds of those who work in our hospitals, medical groups, community health centers and other sites of care

There is a massive effort under way to empower patients by providing them with better health care information. But do they understand the data? Do they actually use them? It would be a shame if the push for informed "patienthood" became a party to which few patients come.