Official Duties of the Surgeon General & Sanjay Gupta's Specialty

[K Gardner]

from www.surgeongeneral.gov

Duties of the Surgeon General
The duties of the Surgeon General are to:

Protect and advance the health of the Nation through educating the public, advocating for effective disease prevention and health promotion programs and activities, and, providing a highly recognized symbol of national commitment to protecting and improving the public's health,

Articulate scientifically based health policy analysis and advice to the President and the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) on the full range of critical public health, medical, and health system issues facing the Nation,

Provide leadership in promoting special Departmental health initiatives, e.g., tobacco and HIV prevention efforts, with other governmental and non-governmental entities, both domestically and internationally,

Administer the U.S. Public Health Service (PHS) Commissioned Corps, which is a uniquely expert, diverse, flexible, and committed career force of public health professionals who can respond to both current and long-term health needs of the Nation,

Provide leadership and management oversight for PHS Commissioned Corps involvement in Departmental emergency preparedness and response activities,

Elevate the quality of public health practice in the professional disciplines through the advancement of appropriate standards and research priorities, and

Fulfill statutory and customary Departmental representational functions on a wide variety of Federal boards and governing bodies of non-Federal health organizations, including the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the National Library of Medicine, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, and the American Medical Association.

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HIGHLIGHTS on Sanjay Gupta from Wikipedia:

In 2003, Gupta traveled to Iraq to cover the medical aspects of 2003 invasion of Iraq. While in Iraq, Gupta performed emergency surgery on both U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Gupta was embedded with a Marine medical unit at the time. A Marine named Jesus Vidana suffered a severe head injury and the Marines asked for Gupta's assistance because of his background in neurosurgery. Vidana survived and was sent back to the United States for rehabilitation.<4>

In December 2006, CBS News President Sean McManus negotiated a deal with CNN that will have Gupta file up to 10 reports a year for "The Evening News With Katie Couric" and "60 minutes" while remaining CNN’s chief medical correspondent and associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital.

Medical practice
Gupta specializes in all facets of neurosurgical care with a strong interest in complicated spine, trauma and 3-D image guided operations. He has recently had articles published in the Journal of Neurosurgery and Neurosurgical Focus on percutaneous pedicle screw placement. He has also published on brain tumors and spinal cord abnormalities.

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After doing just a little bit of research, I'm wondering if the choice of Gupta had to do with his high-profile CNN gig, his recognizability and his specialty of neurosurgery which ties in with the huge number of spinal injuries we have now with our Iraq veterans.

I don't like Gupta, for reasons other than his spat with Michael Moore - he threw alternative therapy under the bus a long time ago; and I'm just trying to figure out what's the worst that could happen from this pick. Not ready to throw Obama under the bus, just wondering if he thought this one through.

[sandnsea]

1. We were going to have status quo or worse

with any other choice anyway, so if we get it with Obama, oh well. It's not any worse than what we would have gotten otherwise. I can still hope he will surprise us on a few issues, even if the majority won't change.

[EFerrari]

2. It's pretty hard to get through grad school without specializing in something

or publishing somewhere. I had a specialty and published, too. :shrug:

[Barack_America]

3. The worst? That our public health policy remains a joke for the next 4-8 years.

I'm just bummed because I really thought that Obama was going to prioritize public health. This pick does not send that message to me. Gupta is going to be in charge of relaying important points on health policy to Daschle, so that he will be able to incorporate them into his health care plans. I just don't see how Gupta has the expertise to do this effectively. I guess he'll just be another figurehead propped up by aides. He may be able to get the job done but that model is inefficient and just so...Bush. :thumbsdown:

[K Gardner]

4. Well, he WAS voted one of the Sexiest Men alive in 2003, yanno...

:eyeroll:

I kinda feel the same way. As an ER nurse, we see the direct and indirect results of a horribly failed public health policy. So much needs to be done, and in a very aggressive and progressive way, too. I remain hopeful, but not so much in this regard.

[sandnsea]

5. I don't think that's his job

I think his job is to relay important points on our health to US.

Daschle will get his points on health policy from a variety of sources, and already has been for years. I really don't think Gupta is necessarily one of them.

[Barack_America]

6. There seems to be a bit of confusion on the stated responsibilities of the position...

...And what the SG actually does. I admit that I don't know the answer.

The SG leads the Public Health Service and is supposed to advise various HHS secretaries on public health matters, but whether or not that actually happens, I don't know.

http://www.hhs.gov/about/orgchart/index.html

[sandnsea]

7. Not sure that means policy though

I think the advice is more on the lines of measuring the public's state of health, so to speak, and then relaying that to the HHS so they can implement policy to address problems. Not that I think Gupta is going to do a good job there either. The biggest problem this country has is that the top 1% thinks everybody else lives like the top 25% and nobody is paying attention to the bottom 75% of us. The new "affordable" health care in Florida is as much as $600 a month. On what planet is that affordable?

[Barack_America]

8. Granted.

I see your point.

Here's hoping that Daschle gets a serious team assembled; one that doesn't rely on Gupta for advice.

[K Gardner]

9. Amen to that ! I'd forgotten Daschle was the underpinning here.. I feel a bit better now :-)