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Christopher Friese, Ph.D., RN, AOCN, FAAN, is a professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, where he focuses on measuring and improving the quality of cancer care delivery. He directs the Center for Improving Patient and Population Health. He is also a faculty investigator at the university’s Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and a core member of the Rogel Cancer Center.
Friese has practiced as a staff nurse at leading cancer centers, including the University of Pennsylvania, Johns Hopkins Hospital, and the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. He is a national expert in the analyses of claims data to study care quality and has executed large surveys of ambulatory oncology nurses. He has authored over 70 publications, and his research findings were among the first to establish a significant relationship between favorable nurse practice environments and lower surgical mortality.
As the first nurse scientist to complete a K99/R00 Pathway to Independence award from the National Institute of Nursing Research, Friese leads an interdisciplinary research program to study the quality of care delivered in understudied ambulatory oncology settings from the perspectives of patients and clinicians. He has also led pivotal studies to develop a valid and reliable measure of ambulatory nursing work environments. His recent work looks for patterns and correlates of hazardous drug exposure in oncology nurses.
Friese's research has been funded by the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the National Institute of Nursing Research, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the American Cancer Society, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. In 2016, he was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health Policy Fellow, where he worked on health policy initiatives in the office of Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Pennsylvania).
Friese received a BSN-PhD from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and completed a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in cancer control and outcomes at Harvard University/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. He is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and received the University of Michigan’s Henry Russel Award for Outstanding Junior Faculty. In 2017, he was installed as the inaugural holder of the Elizabeth Tone Hosmer endowed chair at the University of Michigan. He holds a secondary appointment in health management and policy at the School of Public Health.
Friese was appointed as a member of the PCORI Board of Governors by the Comptroller General of the United States in September 2018.