Dr. Erica Frank, MD, MPH, Professor in the Departments of Health Care and Epidemiology and Family Practice at the University of British Columbia is an American physician, researcher and activist now working in Canada. She specializes in preventive medicine, and practices family and preventive medicine. Her research emphasizes the degree to which a clinician's positive health habits influences patients' positive health habits.
Frank teaches in the Department of Health Care, Epidemiology and Family Practice at the University of British Columbia. She is also a Tier I Canada Research Chair in Preventive Medicine and Population Health and a Senior Scholar of the The Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research. The Founder and Executive Director of Health Sciences Online, a health sciences information portal and she is also an active volunteer and environmentalist and the President of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Previously, until 2006, she was full Professor, Vice Chair for Academic Affairs), and Director of the Division of Preventive Medicine at the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.
She has been Co-Editor in Chief of the scientific journal, Preventive Medicine from 1994 to 1999.
Frank's research has focused on physician's preventive habits. This work has led to her work on the Healthy Doc - Healthy Patient project, a series of programs built into and around the medical curriculum at Emory University School of Medicine. The project was designed to improve prevention counseling by improving the personal health practices of medical students. Frank has done extensive research on the extent to which physicians' habits shape their patients' habits. She has published over 100 articles including four first-authored JAMA citations, and articles in other major peer-reviewed medical journals such as the The Lancet, BMJ and Annals of Internal Medicine.
As Principal Investigator, Frank conducted "The Women Physicians’ Health Study: Background, Objectives, and Methods". The aim was to study:
- the effects of women physicians’ health practices on their patients;
- the effects of women physicians’ health practices on other populations;
the possibility that women physicians represent a high standard for adoption of health behaviors; - sociopolitical reasons.
The study demonstrated that female physicians have healthy habits and that those physicians with the healthiest habits are most likely to encourage patients to adopt such habits. These data are summarized in a one-page JAMA paper. She has also published a number of additional papers.
Frank continues her Healthy Doc = Healthy patient work by expanding the lens of her research to include international collaborations.
Frank has been lauded in the scientific community for her work in public health and preventive medicine. She is a member of Alpha Omega Alpha (a national medical honor society), and her work has been recognized in a number of awards, including:
- The AMA/Pettis Award, for her work as the outstanding U.S. medical student communicator (1987)
- The American College of Preventive Medicine’s (ACPM’s) “Rising Star Award” (in 1996, the first year this award was offered)
- The Outstanding Alumnus Award from the Rollins School of Public Health (1998)
- Featured as an “ecoheroine” by Atlanta Woman magazine (2005)
- Appointed as Canada Research Chair (2006)
Frank received a Medical Doctorate (1988, Mercer University) and a Master's Degree in Public Health with an emphasis on Health Education and Epidemiology (1984, Emory University). Frank completed a residency in preventive medicine (1990, Yale University) and fellowship training (1990-1993 Stanford University) and is board certified in preventive medicine.
She is the daughter of Ulrich Anton Frank (1922-1990) a biomedical engineer with many patents and a prolific painter and sculptor, and Ruth Esser Frank, Ed.D. (1922-), a former professor of education at Bucks County Community College. She is married to Randall White, MD, Vancouver psychiatrist and environmentalist, and mother of Ridge Frank-White. She is a former resident of the Lake Claire cohousing community (1999-2006), and (with her husband) co-designed, built, and inhabited the only energy independent home in Georgia (1995-2006).
