I was invited to be a guest at the 2006 FREDDIE Awards in New York. This was the 32nd Annual FREDDIE Awards, a celebration of the best in health and medical media production. The host was Susan Lucci, Emmy Award-winning actress, Broadway star and philanthropist.
The FREDDIES have been called the "Oscars of the health and medical community," and I was honored to attend and witness Rebecca Patchin, MD, present two awards at the gala event.
The first award Dr. Patchin presented was sponsored by the American Medical Association for the category Issues & Ethics. The winner was "Body Parts," produced by CNN. This segment highlighted the mushrooming demand for organ transplants and the growing number of Americans who are responding to the need by not waiting to die to give away their organs. The program examined this new frontier of medicine and found a dark underside.
The second award Dr. Patchin presented was in the field of psychiatry. The winner was "Success Stories: Group Therapy Tools for Inpatient Psychiatric Care." In this segment, mental health consumers shared the lessons they learned about living with schizophrenia.
Four 2006 Public Service Awards were conferred upon the American Heart Association, Erik Weihenmayer, Dr. Phil McGraw and the Dr. Phil Foundation, and Boomer Esiason and the Boomer Esiason Foundation.
Finally, Jerry Lewis received the 2006 Lifetime Achievement Award. He joins the ranks of other special honor recipients including luminaries such as Jonas Salk, MD, former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop, MD, actor Paul Sorvino, Bill and Melinda Gates, Senators John Glenn and Bob Dole, and basketball legend Magic Johnson.
About the FREDDIES
Thirty-two years ago, FREDDIES Founder Fredrick Gottlieb, MD, a San Francisco Bay-area ophthalmologist, watched some rather dry surgical films during a medical meeting. "I could make films better than these," he said. A pharmaceutical executive sitting nearby overheard his remark and offered him a grant to do just that. Since that day, Dr. Gottlieb brought the worlds of medical science, education and the arts together in what has become the pre-eminent international media competition devoted to educational health and medical productions.
Each year, the competition attracts hundreds of submissions--documentaries, series, shorts, videos, Web sites and CD-ROMs--from around the world in 35 categories. These include Adolescent Health, Diabetes, Fitness/Wellness, Infectious Disease, Prevention and Women's Health among others. The productions aim to help people live healthier, longer lives. They provide answers for consumers and health professionals and often provoke new questions. The stories they tell are courageous and inspirational. They document the lives of those who have overcome tremendous medical struggles and those who have helped them. Visit www.thefreddies.com for information.
Dolores Green is the executive director of the Riverside County Medical Association. She can be reached at 951/686-3342 or dgreen@rcmanet.org.
