Loren Friedman, M.D.

Loren Friedman founded Arlington Palliative Care, PLC in September 2004 and began providing care to patients at Virginia Hospital Center in October 2004. In 2005 he was named the first Medical Director of the Virginia Hospital Center Palliative Care Service. From 1993 to September 2004 Dr. Friedman worked at Capital Hospice where he served as the Medical Director of both the Halquist Inpatient Hospice Center in Arlington and of the Washington, DC home hospice service. Concurrently, Dr. Friedman served from 1996 to 2003 as Assistant Professor of Medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine, where he continues to have an affiliation as Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine.

In 2000 Dr. Friedman was awarded $50,000 by the Prince Charitable Trust as the principle investigator on a grant which provided education on end of life care to leading physicians in the Washington metropolitan region. The following year, he applied to the Prince Charitable Trust for a second grant to continue a network of support among regional physicians who were caring for patients at the end of life: he was awarded an additional $50,000 based on the success of the initial grant. In an acknowledgement of his work, in 2002 Dr. Friedman was recognized by the DC Hospital Association as one of two co-recipients of the prestigious Haynes Rice Community Service Award. The award was presented by DC Mayor Anthony Williams for, “for your outstanding work to improve palliative care for the residents of the metropolitan Washington community.”

Dr. Friedman was born in Washington, DC and was raised in Bethesda, Maryland. He received his undergraduate degree from Brown University in 1979 where he majored in literature and fine arts. After working in film production, he attended Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, from 1984 to 1988. As a medical student, he helped care for patients in New York City at the beginning of the AIDS epidemic. As a resident physician in Family Medicine in Hartford, Connecticut, he continued to develop educational protocols for the management of patients with HIV. He later put this experience to use when he helped to direct HIV services as a physician at Health Care for the Homeless Project in Washington, DC from 1993 to 1996. He began working full-time with hospice in 1996.

Dr. Friedman’s accomplishments as a physician educator include the development of mentoring programs on end of life care for physicians in training and for physicians in mid-career. He was the founding director of the Capital Hospice Palliative Medicine Fellowship and he recruited their first fellow in 2004. He is known as an expert on pain management in palliative care. In addition to authoring publications related to pain management, he has lectured regionally and nationally on symptom management at the end of life. He was first identified in 2005 by the Washingtonian Magazine as one of the best area pain management physicians. He is currently working--as one of nine physicians from across the country--with the American Board of Internal Medicine to develop the new board exam for palliative medicine. Dr. Friedman is board certified in both Family Medicine and in Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, with his wife and two children.

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Jean-Paul Pinzon, D.O.

Jean-Paul Pinzon has been with Arlington Palliative Care since September 2006. He completed a one year fellowship in Palliative Medicine at George Washington University in 2006, during which he rotated with the palliative care team at Virginia Hospital Center. Dr. Pinzon completed residency training in internal medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City in 2005. He graduated from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine in 2002 and received his undergraduate degree from Tufts University in 1996, where he majored in biology and studied community health. Dr. Pinzon is board certified in both Internal Medicine and in Hospice and Palliative Medicine.

Dr. Pinzon’s was born and raised in Queens, NY. He currently resides in Falls Church, Virginia, where he lives with his wife and daughter.

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Marian Parrott, M.D, M.P.H.

Dr. Parrott comes to Arlington Palliative Care with more than twenty years of experience as an internist, geriatrician and hospice physician. Dr Parrott received her degree in Biology from Bryn Mawr College and her MD from Dartmouth Medical School. As a resident at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx, she became interested in improving the care of the aged. She also became interested in improving the quality of care for the dying patient. Following two years as medical director of a Home Care program in the Bronx, she pursued these interests as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania, where she studied medical ethics, law and the elderly and the sociology of aging. Subsequently, she worked as a clinician educator and staff physician in a variety of settings. 

After moving to the Washington area in 1987, Dr. Parrott worked for a number of years at the George Washington University, where she became director of the Geriatric program. She cared for hospice patients in multiple settings including the Washington Home and Hospice, Thomas House, and in home care. In addition to her work teaching medical students and residents, Dr. Parrott did research with Dr. Tamara Harris at the National Institutes on Aging on the epidemiology of prostrate disease in elderly men. Also while at George Washington University, Dr. Parrott obtained a Masters degree in Public Health. From 1996-1998 she served as Associate Medical Director of the George Washington University Health Plan

Dr. Parrott worked at the American Diabetes Association where she revised and edited the Association’s Standards of Care. She served as the Association’s physician liaison to the managed care industry and to the Health Care Financing Administration. After this sabbatical from full-time clinical practice, Dr. Parrott returned to direct patient care as a geriatrician at Greenspring Village, a large full service retirement community in Springfield, Virginia.  At Greenspring she started a new hospice program and taught students from the University of Virginia.

Throughout her diverse career, Dr. Parrott has maintained a passionate interest in helping patients and families when faced with serious illness. She is board certified in both Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and is preparing for board certification in Palliative Medicine.

Dr. Parrott lives in Northern Virginia with her husband. She has three sons; two are now attending college. When not working, she enjoys classical music, books, and cooking.

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Johanna Braden, R.N., C.H.P.N.  

Johanna Braden is the Clinical Coordinator of the Virginia Hospital Center Palliative Care Service.  Together with Loren Friedman, MD, she began the program in October 2004.  

Ms. Braden worked as a hospice nurse with Capital Hospice from 2000 to 2004.  Prior to her relocation to the Washington metropolitan area, she worked as the medical liaison on site at the US Embassy in Riga, Latvia.  While at the embassy in Latvia, Ms. Braden’s outreach efforts included the establishment of an inpatient hospice unit; the renovation and creation of playrooms at the Latvian Children’s Hospital; and the rallying of the expatriate community to raise funds for several orphanages. In addition to her work through the embassy, Ms. Braden raised thousands of dollars for the International School of Latvia.  She developed the funds to create a science lab, a library and a new playground.  Her efforts were recognized when she was awarded the Madeleine Albright Award for Volunteerism in Europe 1999. 

Ms. Braden has been lauded for her ability to comfort patients at the end of life and to reach out to family members.  She is seen as a supportive mentor by her nursing colleagues and she is consulted for her expertise on pain and symptom management throughout the hospital.  All newly hired nurses receive an introduction to palliative care from Ms. Braden during their hospital orientation.

Since completing her nursing training at New England Baptist School of Nursing in Boston, Massachusetts in 1979, Ms. Braden has worked nationally and internationally. Her career started in pediatric oncology and transplant nursing. She subsequently branched into family practice, public health and hospice care. She is married to LTC Thomas Braden USMC (Ret) and they have two children. They have been permanent residents of Arlington, Virginia since 2000.

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Lauren is a native of northern New Jersey.  She graduated from Iowa State University with a degree in English Literature and Women’s Studies in 1998.  She has had a varied career ranging from carnival tent crew forewoman to public relations associate to bartender.  Since her graduation from Potomac Massage Training Institute in 2005, Lauren has had unique opportunities to train with national leaders in the field of oncology massage.  As a certified massage therapist, clinical instructor and supervisor in the fields of oncology massage, hospital massage and end-of-life massage, she has turned a passion for bringing massage therapy into the clinical setting into a successful partnership between The Teal Center and the Virginia Hospital Center Palliative Care Service.  Lauren and The Teal Center’s therapists provide therapeutic and comfort touch massage to patients throughout the hospital.

During her massage therapy training, Lauren’s experience with members of the elderly and hospice communities steered her post-graduate massage therapy training toward a specialization in oncology and end of life massage.  She joined The Teal Center’s Virginia Hospital Center team in the spring of 2005.  Since that time, she has worked to build an intensive clinical massage training program at Virginia Hospital Center joining the ranks of the palliative care team in the winter of 2007.

Ms. Cates serves as the lead instructor of the 6-Day Oncology/Hospital massage intensive training course required of all Teal Center hospital massage therapists.  She continues to work as a clinic instructor at her alma mater, Potomac Massage Training Institute.  In addition, Ms. Cates maintains a successful private practice in Arlington, VA.  While she enjoys caring for a wide variety of clients, her focus is with clients who live with terminal and chronic illness.

Lauren is a certified massage therapist, Reiki practitioner and volunteer massage therapist with a local hospice.  She will graduate from Metta Institute’s 9-month End of Life Practitioner Program in September of 2008.  She is working actively with the Virginia Hospital Center chaplain, Graham Bardsley, to reinitiate Virginia Hospital Center’s Compassionate Sitters program, which provides companionship and spiritual guidance to the dying.

Ms. Cates lives in Arlington, VA with her partner and their houseful of cats and dogs.

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