Stephen Freeman, a fourth-year MD/MPH student at Feinberg, has been selected to participate in the Pisacano Scholars Leadership Program, a highly competitive professional development and scholarship opportunity given to exceptional future leaders in the field of family medicine.
Freeman is the first student from Feinberg to be selected for the program and will join a national cohort of scholars and hone skills in research, advocacy and teaching.
“I’m honored and excited to be a part of this lifelong community of scholars who are focused on supporting each other and helping to create change,” Freeman said.
Originally from Northville, Michigan, Freeman grew up watching his mother, also a family medicine physician, and the relationships she formed with her patients over the years.
“What I love about family medicine is building longitudinal relationships with patients,” Freeman said. “There’s a generational impact in family medicine – you really understand their whole family and where they are coming from. It really changes how we’re able to improve health outcomes and build the trust that I think is needed in medicine right now.”
As a 2023 American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) Emerging Leader Institute scholar, Stephen led an interdisciplinary team to create an AI-powered patient education platform. The platform, called MediSimplify, allows doctors to simplify patient education materials to meet national health literacy standards in seconds.
Freeman was also involved in the Health Literacy Initiative at the Cook County Department of Public Health and has helped develop a low-cost diabetes education toolkit for patients newly prescribed insulin.
At Feinberg, Freeman served as co-director of Walk with a Future Doc (WWAFD), and led weekly walks and health conversations to help local Chicagoans get active.
“Because of Feinberg’s Education-Centered Medical Home program, I get a lot of autonomy to take ownership of my patients’ care and follow them over many years,” Freeman said. “Through ECMH, I have formed some of my deepest relationships with patients and caring for those patients has been one of the biggest highlights of medical school.”
