Rich Frankel Ph.D., is Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics and a Senior Research Scientist at the Regenstrief Institute, IU School of Medicine. He is also a senior scientist in the Center for Implementing Evidence-Based Practice Health at the Richard L. Roudebush VAMC. Rich is a health services researcher with a special emphasis on qualitative data analysis. Rich also serves as the statewide competency director in professionalism for the School of Medicine. After receiving his Ph.D. in 1977 in medical sociology at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York he did a post-doctoral fellowship in qualitative approaches to mental health research at Boston University. Rich was in the Department of Medicine at Wayne State University for 11 years where he was the behavioral science coordinator for the primary care internal medicine program. In 1986 he was selected as a Fulbright Fellow in community medicine at the University of Uppsala in Sweden where he conducted research on ambulatory care in the Swedish context. From 1990-2001 he served as the residency program co-director and a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. He was directed the Primary Care Institute, a multidisciplinary health services and education unit affiliated with the University. Most recently, he spent a year at the Fetzer Institute where he was the vice president for program evaluation. Rich was the recipient in 1999 of the American Academy's award for outstanding contributions to research and education on the medical interview.

Rich's research interests include: the physician patient relationship and its effect on the processes and outcomes of care, psychosocial aspects of medical care, communication between older adults and their providers, the effects of technology (computers) on the physician patient relationship, patient safety and communicating about medical errors, and conversations at the end of life. Rich enjoys walking, collecting and reading first editions of antiquarian books, photography and art history.