HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF SURGEON-GENERAL OF UNITED STATE Compiled by; OMOLOLA ADAMS OLATAYO From WIKIPEDIA
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF SURGEON-GENERAL OF UNITED STATE
Compiled by;
OMOLOLA ADAMS OLATAYO RN
From WIKIPEDIA
Surgeon General of the United States
surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC) and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government of the United States. The Surgeon General's office and staff are known as the Office of the Surgeon General (OSG).The U.S. Surgeon General is nominated by the President of the United States and confirmed by a majority vote of the Senate. The Surgeon General serves a four-year term of office and, depending on whether the current Assistant Secretary for Health is a PHSCC commissioned officer or not, is the senior or second-highest ranking uniformed officer of the PHSCC, holding the rank of a vice admiral. The current Acting Surgeon General is Rear Admiral Boris Lushniak, who was named to the position following Regina Benjamin's resignation on July 16, 2013.
The Surgeon General is also the ultimate award authority for several public health awards and decorations, the highest of which that can be directly awarded is the Surgeon General's Medallion (the highest award bestowed by board action is the Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal). The Surgeon General also has many informal duties, such as educating the American public about health issues and advocating healthy lifestyle choices.
The office also periodically issues health warnings. Perhaps the best known example of this is the "Surgeon General's Warning" labels that can be found on all packages of American tobacco cigarettes for 47 years. A similar health warning appears on alcoholic beverages labels, since 1988.
History
In 1798, Congress established the Marine Hospital Service—predecessor to today’s United States Public Health Service—to provide health care to sick and injured merchant seamen. In 1870, the Marine Hospital Service was reorganized as a national hospital system with centralized administration under a medical officer, the Supervising Surgeon, who was later given the title of Surgeon General.The U.S. Public Health Service was under the direction of the Office of the Surgeon General and was an independent government agency until 1953 at which point it was integrated into the newly established United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, (HEW), and later in 1979/1980 into the reorganized United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
Some Surgeons General are notable for being outspoken and advocating controversial proposals on how to reform the U.S. health system. The office is not a particularly powerful one, and has little direct statutary impact on policy-making, but Surgeons General are often vocal advocates (with 26th President Theodore Roosevelt's practice of "The Bully Pulpit" in the early 20th Century) of precedent-setting, far-sighted, unconventional or even unpopular health policies. With the advance of modern media, and an advanced medical establishment in America, the example of former Surgeon General, C. Everett Koop, during the administration of President Ronald Reagan in the 1980's or the attention paid to the controversial drive to confirm certain S.G. nominees by the U.S. Senate during the administration of Bill Clinton in the 1990's, shows just how truly powerful and influential an activist Surgeon General can be. Just like in comparison to the incumbent and office of the Vice President of the United States, the character, drive and reach of the office-holder makes the office itself, far more powerful or influential as they may be - "the man makes the job"!
- On January 11, 1964, Rear Admiral Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., published a landmark report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health, sparking nationwide anti-smoking efforts. Terry and his committee defined cigarette smoking of nicotine as not an addiction. (The committee itself consisted largely of physicians who themselves smoked.) This error went uncorrected for 24 years.
- In 1986, Vice Admiral Dr. C. Everett Koop's report on AIDS called for some form of AIDS education in the early grades of elementary school and gave full support for using condoms for disease prevention.
- In 1994, Vice Admiral Dr. Joycelyn Elders had spoken at a United Nations conference on AIDS. She was asked whether it would be appropriate to promote masturbation as a means of preventing young people from engaging in riskier forms of sexual activity, and she replied, "I think that it is part of human sexuality, and perhaps it should be taught."
The insignia of the Surgeon General, and the USPHS, use the caduceus as opposed to the Rod of Asclepius
The Surgeon General is a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps, one of the seven uniformed services of the United States, and by law holds the rank of vice admiral. Officers of the Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps are classified as non-combatants, but can be subjected to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and the Geneva Conventions when designated by the Commander-in-Chief as a military force or if they are detailed or assigned to work with the armed forces. Officer members of these services wear uniforms that are similar to those worn by the United States Navy, except that the commissioning devices, buttons, and insignia are unique. Officers in the U.S. Public Health Service wear unique devices that are similar to U.S. Navy, Staff Corps Officers (e.g., Navy Medical Service Corps, Supply Corps, etc.).
The only Surgeon General to actually hold the rank of a four-star admiral was David Satcher,(b. 1941), (term: 1998-2002). This was because he served simultaneously in the positions of Surgeon General (three-star) and Assistant Secretary for Health (which is a four-star office).[8] John Maynard Woodworth, (1837-1879), the first holder of the office as "Supervising Surgeon" (term: 1871-1879), is the only Surgeon General to not hold a rank.Surgeons General of the United States
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Name
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Photo
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Term of Office
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Appointed by
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Start Of Term
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End Of Term
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1
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March 29, 1871
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March 14, 1879
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2
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April 3, 1879
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June 1, 1891
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3
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RADM Walter Wyman
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June 1, 1891
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November 21, 1911
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4
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RADM Rupert Blue
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January 13, 1912
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March 3, 1920
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5
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RADM Hugh S. Cumming
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March 3, 1920
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January 31, 1936
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6
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RADM Thomas Parran, Jr.
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April 6, 1936
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April 6, 1948
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7
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RADM Leonard A. Scheele
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April 6, 1948
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August 8, 1956
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8
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RADM Leroy Edgar Burney
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August 8, 1956
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January 29, 1961
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9
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RADM Luther Terry
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March 2, 1961
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October 1, 1965
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10
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October 1, 1965
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August 1, 1969
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11
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December 18, 1969
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January 30, 1973 [9]
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(acting)
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RADM S. Paul Ehrlich, Jr.
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January 31, 1973 [10]
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July 13, 1977
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12
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VADM Julius B. Richmond
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July 13, 1977
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January 20, 1981 [11]
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(acting)
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May 14, 1981
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January 21, 1982
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13
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VADM C. Everett Koop
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January 21, 1982
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October 1, 1989
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(acting)
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October 1, 1989
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March 9, 1990
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14
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VADM Antonia C. Novello
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March 9, 1990
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June 30, 1993
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(acting)
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RADM Robert A. Whitney
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July 1, 1993
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September 8, 1993
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15
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VADM Joycelyn Elders
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September 8, 1993
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December 31, 1994
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(acting)
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RADM Audrey
F. Manley
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January 1, 1995
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July 1, 1997
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16
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ADM[8]
/ VADM David Satcher
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February 13, 1998
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February 12, 2002
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(acting)
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RADM Kenneth P. Moritsugu
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February 13, 2002
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August 4, 2002
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17
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VADM Richard Carmona
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August 5, 2002
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July 31, 2006
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(acting)
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RADM Kenneth P. Moritsugu
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August 1, 2006
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September 30, 2007
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RADM Steven
K. Galson
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October 1, 2007
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October 1, 2009
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RADM Donald
L. Weaver
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October 1, 2009
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November 3, 2009
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18
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VADM Regina Benjamin[12]
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November 3, 2009[13]
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July 16, 2013
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(acting)
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RADM Boris D. Lushniak
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July 17, 2013
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Minnie Joycelyn Elders (born Minnie Lee Jones on August 13, 1933) is an American pediatrician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and the first African American appointed as Surgeon General of the United States. Elders is best known for her frank discussion of her views on controversial issues such as drug legalization and distributing contraception in schools. She was fired mid-term in December 1994 amidst controversy. She is currently a professor emerita of pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Early life and education
Elders was born Minnie Lee Jones in Schaal, Arkansas, to a poor farm family, and was the eldest of eight children. In college, she changed her name to Minnie Joycelyn Lee. In 1952, she received her B.S. degree in Biology from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Arkansas, where she also pledged Delta Sigma Theta. After working as a nurse's aide in a Veterans Administration hospital in Milwaukee for a period, she joined the United States Army in May 1953. During her 3 years in the Army, she was trained as a physical therapist. She then attended the University of Arkansas Medical School, where she obtained her M.D. degree in 1960. After completing an internship at the University of Minnesota Hospital and a residency in pediatrics at the University of Arkansas Medical Center, Elders earned an M.S. degree in Biochemistry in 1967.Robert A. Whitney (born 27 July 1935) is an American veterinarian and public health administrator. He served as acting Surgeon General of the United States from July to September 1993.
Biography
Whitney was born in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He received his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Oklahoma State University in 1959 and his master's in pharmacology from Ohio State University in 1965. Whitney is a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, initiated at Oklahoma State University.A career United States Public Health Service officer, Whitney was appointed deputy surgeon general September 1, 1992. Since 1971, he held a number of positions of increasing responsibility in the National Institutes of Health. From 1989 to 1992, he was director of the NIH National Center for Research Resources.
Prior to joining the PHS, Whitney was director of the U.S. Army training program in laboratory animal medicine and served a year in Vietnam (1970) as commander of a veterinary medical detachment.
Whitney is a diplomate of the American College of Laboratory Animal Medicine and served as chief veterinary officer of the Public Health Service from 1985-1989. His awards include U.S. Public Health Service Distinguished Service Medal and the Legion of Merit from the for his US Army service
Antonia Coello Novello, M.D., (born August 23, 1944) is a Puerto Rican physician and public health administrator. She was a vice admiral in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and served as fourteenth Surgeon General of the United States from 1990 to 1993. Novello is the first woman and first Hispanic to serve as Surgeon General.
Novello served as Commissioner of Health for the State of New York from 1999 to 2006. Novello was charged in a 20 count indictment on May 12, 2009, in New York with theft of government services, defrauding the government and filing a false instrument. On June 26, 2009, in a plea deal with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to one charge of filing a false document involving a worker’s duties.
Career
Public Health Service
In 1979, Novello joined the Public Health Service and received a commission in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps (PHSCC). Her first assignment was as a project officer at the National Institute of Arthritis, Metabolism and Digestive Diseases of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). From 1976, she also held a clinical appointment in pediatrics at Georgetown University Hospital. During her years at NIH, Novello worked on an MPH degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, receiving the degree in 1982.Novello held various positions at NIH before being appointed to Assistant Surgeon General grade in the PHSCC[citation needed] and assignment as the Deputy Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in 1986. She also served as Coordinator for AIDS Research for NICHD from September 1987.In this role, she developed a particular interest in pediatric AIDS, which caught the attention of the White House.
Novello made major contributions to the drafting and enactment of the Organ Transplantation Procurement Act of 1984 while assigned to the United States Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources, working with the staff of committee chairman Orrin Hatch.
Surgeon General
Novello was appointed Surgeon General by President George H. W. Bush, beginning her tenure on March 9, 1990, and was appointed to the temporary rank of vice admiral in the regular corps while the Surgeon General. She was the first woman and the first Hispanic to hold the position.During her tenure as Surgeon General, Novello focused her attention on the health of women, children and minorities, as well as on underage drinking, smoking, and AIDS. She played an important role in launching the Healthy Children Ready to Learn Initiative. She was actively involved in working with other organizations to promote immunization of children and childhood injury prevention efforts. She spoke out often and forcefully about illegal underage drinking, and called upon the United States Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General to issue a series of eight reports on the subject.
Novello also worked to discourage illegal tobacco use by young people, and repeatedly criticized the tobacco industry for appealing to the youth market through the use of cartoon characters such as Joe Camel. A workshop that she convened led to the emergence of a National Hispanic/Latino Health Initiative.
Novello was controversial among abortion rights advocates due to her support of a policy prohibiting family planning program workers who received federal financing from discussing abortion with their patients.
Novello left the post of Surgeon General on June 30, 1993, with the administration of President Bill Clinton praising her for her "vigor and talent."
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Biography
Early years
Richmond was born in Chicago He was educated during the Great Depression, earning his B.S. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, followed by an M.S. in physiology and his M.D. from the University of Illinois College of Medicine in 1939. After completing an 18-month rotating internship at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Richmond entered two pediatrics residencies, the first at Chicago’s Municipal Contagious Disease Hospital (1941–1942) and the second at Cook. The United States’ entry into World War II interrupted Richmond’s postgraduate training, as he volunteered and was inducted into the Army Air Corps in February 1942. Through 1946 Richmond worked as a flight surgeon with the Air Force’s Flying Training Command.Career
After demobilization, Richmond completed his residency and began what would be a distinguished academic career in which public service was an integral part of scholarly research. He began as a professor in Pediatrics at his alma mater (1946–53) and a Markle Foundation scholar in medical science (1948–53), and was active both in nonprofit children’s welfare organizations and Chicago’s Institute for Psychoanalysis. During 1953 he moved to the State University of New York at Syracuse College of Medicine (now known as the Upstate Medical Center). The Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education (1954) inspired Richmond and his colleague, Betty Caldwell, to turn their interdisciplinary research, integrating elements of psychiatry into pediatrics, toward policy ends as they documented how poverty threatened the psychosocial development of young children. They focused on cognitive abilities developed during a child’s first years, where functional deficits linked to poverty, for example, those caused by malnutrition, could make learning more difficult and as a result, put the children of the poor at risk of failing both at school and later on, in attempts to advance economically.Richmond’s work at Syracuse caught the eye of Sargent Shriver, head of the Kennedy Foundation. After President Lyndon B. Johnson tapped Shriver to head a new independent agency, the Office of Economic Opportunity (OEO) (1964), Shriver convinced Richmond to take a leave of absence and join him. At OEO Richmond would use a demonstration grants mechanism to create two important new public health programs that incorporated OEO’s mandate to aid local groups directly, rather than channeling resources through state health departments, the traditional partners of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare's Public Health Service. During 1965, Richmond implemented Project Head Start, an enrichment program for disadvantaged pre-school age children that was greeted eagerly by community groups. Building on health-related proposals submitted in response to Head Start, in 1966 Richmond sponsored a series of Neighborhood Health Centers that united economic development and local oversight of, and participation in, health services delivery.
In 1967, Richmond left OEO to return to Syracuse, to serve as Dean of the medical faculty. During 1971 he moved to Harvard Medical School, where he held professorships in two departments, Child Psychiatry and Human Development (1971–73) and Preventive & Social Medicine (1971–79), directed the Judge Baker Guidance Center in Boston (1971–77), a nonprofit mental health organization that works with Boston’s juvenile courts, and also served as Chief of Psychiatry at the Children's Hospital Boston.
References
David (June 12, 2013). "Surgeon General Regina
Benjamin announces resignation". Public Health Newswire.
American Public Health Association.
Retrieved July 27, 2013.
Julie
M. Fenster "Hazardous to Your Health" American Heritage,
Oct. 2006.
Winn, Mari (October 9, 1988). "The
Legacy of Dr. Koop". The New York Times.
Leon Dash, "Joycelyn
Elders: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of t he United States of America",
Washington Monthly, January–February 1997
"Office of the Surgeon General, David Satcher,
(1998–2002] url=http://www.surgeongeneral.gov/about/previous/biosatcher.htm".
U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services. January 4, 2007.
"Obama
picks Regina Benjamin as surgeon general". Reuters. July 13, 2009.
Stobbe, Mike (December 3, 2009). "Surgeon general: More
minority doctors needed". WTOP. Retrieved December 5, 2009.
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