[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4612-4613]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 RETIREMENT OF DR. MICHAEL DAVID FREED

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I welcome this opportunity to pay tribute 
on the occasion of his retirement to Dr. Michael David Freed of 
Children's Hospital Boston for his service to the hospital and the 
thousands of children and young adults from Massachusetts and beyond 
who have benefited from his care.
  Dr. Freed has had a long and distinguished career at the hospital and 
Harvard Medical School, beginning in 1970, when he arrived to complete 
his fellowship training. At Children's Hospital, he rose to become 
senior associate in cardiology in 1976 and chief of the Division of 
Inpatient Cardiology in 1996.
  Dr. Freed is a physician's physician. His commitment to providing the 
best possible care for children with heart disease is unwavering. He 
has used his breadth and depth of knowledge, his clarity of thought, 
his empathy, and his sense of humor to train more than 200 pediatric 
cardiology fellows and innumerable pediatric residents in the 
fundamentals of congenital heart disease. As a member of the Sub-board 
of Pediatric Cardiology, he ensured the highest quality of care by 
setting standards for board certification for young pediatric 
cardiologists.
  At Children's Hospital, Dr. Freed has chaired or served on more than 
two dozen committees, projects, and task forces, ranging from quality 
improvement and patient care to graduate

[[Page 4613]]

medical education and governance. His contributions extend well beyond 
Boston. He has served on the executive committees of all three major 
national organizations in his field--the American Heart Association, 
the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American College of 
Cardiology, where he currently serves on the board of trustees. He is 
also a member of editorial boards in the field of cardiology, and 
regularly has been included on lists of ``top physicians'' ranging from 
the book ``Best Doctors in America'' to Good Housekeeping and Boston 
Magazine. He is consulted by other pediatric cardiologists from around 
the world who seek his opinion on the care of their patients.
  Dr. Freed has also written extensively in the field of pediatric 
cardiology and cardiac surgery and is particularly recognized for his 
work in the newborn physiology of congenital heart disease, infective 
endocarditis, and valvular heart disease. He has authored more than 60 
original articles, contributed more than 40 reviews, chapters, and 
editorials, and developed more than 25 clinical communications and 
instructive CD ROMs. His leadership in establishing clinical practice 
guidelines for early postoperative management of children in Boston 
undergoing open-heart surgery was a model for the development of such 
guidelines nationally. In addition, he has been a member of national 
working groups to develop guidelines on optimal care of individuals 
with heart disease.
  I commend Dr. Freed for his outstanding career and his achievements 
in improving the quality of care for children and young people with 
congenital heart disease in Boston and throughout the world, and I wish 
him well in retirement.

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