Harold P. Freeman

Harold Paul Freeman (March 2, 1933 – August 11, 2026) was an American physician. He was an authority on race, poverty and cancer.

Freeman was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the National Academy of Science's Institute of Medicine. He served as President of the American Cancer Society from 1988–1989, leading the society's initiative on Cancer in the Poor. Freeman has argued for the involvement of scientists in policy formation. His work led to the passage of the Patient Navigator Outreach and Chronic Disease Prevention Act (H.R. 1812) of 2005, was born on March 2, 1933, in Washington, D.C. to Clyde and Lucille Thomas Freeman. The family name "Freeman" was chosen by his great-great-grandfather who bought himself free from slavery on a North Carolina plantation.

Harold's father, Clyde Freeman, took night classes to put himself through law school. His mother Lucille was a teacher. Clyde died of testicular cancer when Harold was only 13 years of age. Despite this, Harold completed his high school education at Dunbar High School, then an academically elite but segregated institution in Washington, D.C. Harold also played in the U.S. Open in subsequent years.

Freeman won an academic scholarship to Catholic University of America He was chosen as team captain of both in his senior year. In 1992, he was inducted into the university's Athletes Hall of Fame.

He went on to study medicine at Howard University Medical School in Washington, D.C., also a historically Black school. There Freeman studied with Burke Syphax and was inspired by LaSalle D. Leffall Jr. and Jack E. White. Freeman received his medical degree in 1958,

In 1964, Freeman accepted an advanced residency position at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) From 1966 to 1968, he was Senior Resident in Cancer Surgery at MSK. By 1974, he had opened a free clinic, held on Saturdays, to improve accessibility for patients. This later officially become part of the hospital system.

In 1977, at hearings convened by New York City governor Hugh Carey, Freeman criticized the American Cancer Society for their lack of involvement in areas like Harlem. The board of directors of the American Cancer Society responded by inviting Freeman to become a director at large in 1978. He succeeded LaSalle D. Leffall as chairman of the ACS committee dealing with Cancer in Minorities. In Excess Mortality in Harlem (1990), Freeman and Colin McCord documented the lower lifespan of African American males in Harlem, which was less than that of males in Bangladesh. Mortality rates for men and women in some age categories were up to six times those of white men and women of similar age nationally.

As President of the American Cancer Society (1988-1989), Freeman held nation-wide hearings that examined economic, educational and socio-cultural factors and their effects on access to care, explaining the higher incidence and mortality of cancer to be found in under-served populations in terms of interlinking conditions of poverty, social injustice, and culture. In 1990, the ACS funded Freeman's pilot program for patient navigation in Harlem Hospital. He was first appointed by President George H. W. Bush and reappointed three times by President Bill Clinton. which replaced the NCI Office of Special Populations Research. Freeman emphasized the need to advocate for policy changes based on research, in addition to the organization's work in education and communication. quote|“We believe that we need to have the ability to raise reasonable questions that we believe should be answered, and which have the potential of calling in the best minds in the world to help us to come to some answers,” Harold Freeman, 2000 He continued to be chairman emeritus of the organization.

As of June 2007, with funding from the Amgen Foundation, the Harold P. Freeman Patient Navigation Institute was established in New York City. Freeman was its founder, president, and CEO.

Death Freeman died on August 11, 2026, at the age of 93.

Awards and honors Fellow, American College of Surgeons 2000, Mary Lasker Award for Public Service, National Institutes of Health (NIH) 2000, Medal of Honor Award, American Cancer Society 2001, CDC Foundation Champion of Prevention Award, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2004, Rudin Prize, GNYHA Foundation 2004, Robert F. Allen Symbol of H.O.P.E. Award. American Journal of Health Promotion (AJHP) 2015, Giants of Cancer Care Award, Onclive 2017, The Cura Personalis Award, Georgetown University Medical Center

Selected publications (modified version of Cancer in the Economically Disadvantaged, 1989)