Surgeon General of the United States

Surgeon General of the United States

The Surgeon General of the
United States
Flag of the United States Surgeon General
Seal of the United States Public Health Service, 1798
Incumbent
RADM Boris D. Lushniak
(Acting)
since July 17, 2013
Public Health Service
Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps
Reports to United States Assistant Secretary for Health
Seat

Hubert H. Humphrey Building, United States Department of Health and Human Services,

(HHS), Washington, D.C.
Appointer The President
Term length 4 years
Formation March 29, 1871
Deputy Deputy Surgeon General of the United States
Website .gov.SurgeonGeneralwww

The 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.[1] 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.[2]

Responsibilities

Seal of the U.S. Public Health Service, 1798

The Surgeon General reports to the Assistant Secretary for Health (ASH), who may be a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service, Commissioned Corps (PHSCC), and who serves as the principal adviser to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on public health and scientific issues. The Surgeon General is the overall head of the Commissioned Corps, a 6,500-member cadre of health professionals who are on call 24 hours a day, and can be dispatched by the Secretary of HHS or the Assistant Secretary for Health in the event of a public health emergency.

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

US Public Health Service Collar Device
US Public Health Service Cap Device

In 1798, Congress established the [3]

The U.S. Public Health Service was under the direction of the Office of the Surgeon General and was an 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.

  • On January 11, 1964, Rear Admiral Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., published a landmark report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health,[4] 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.[5]
  • 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.[6]
  • 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."[7]

After the resignation of Dr. Regina Benjamin in July 2013, President Barack Obama nominated Dr. Vivek Murthy, to be the nation's next Surgeon General, but the nomination was not advanced to a confirmation vote in the Senate because conservative lawmakers and the National Rifle Association objected to his views on firearms.[8]

The U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force also have officers overseeing medical matters in their respective services who hold the title Surgeon General.

The insignia of the Surgeon General, and the USPHS, use the caduceus as opposed to the Rod of Asclepius

Service rank

The stars, shoulder boards, and sleeve stripes of the Surgeon General

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.[1] 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).[9] 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

# Name Photo Term of Office Appointed by
Start Of Term End Of Term
1 John M. Woodworth March 29, 1871 March 14, 1879 Ulysses S. Grant
2 RADM John B. Hamilton April 3, 1879 June 1, 1891 Rutherford B. Hayes
3 RADM Walter Wyman June 1, 1891 November 21, 1911 Benjamin Harrison
4 RADM Rupert Blue January 13, 1912 March 3, 1920 William Taft
5 RADM Hugh S. Cumming March 3, 1920 January 31, 1936 Woodrow Wilson
6 RADM Thomas Parran, Jr. April 6, 1936 April 6, 1948 Franklin D. Roosevelt
7 RADM Leonard A. Scheele April 6, 1948 August 8, 1956 Harry S Truman
8 RADM Leroy Edgar Burney August 8, 1956 January 29, 1961 Dwight Eisenhower
9 RADM Luther Terry March 2, 1961 October 1, 1965 John F. Kennedy
10 VADM William H. Stewart October 1, 1965 August 1, 1969 Lyndon Johnson
11 RADM Jesse Leonard Steinfeld December 18, 1969 January 30, 1973 [10] Richard Nixon
(acting) RADM S. Paul Ehrlich, Jr. January 31, 1973 [11] July 13, 1977
12 VADM Julius B. Richmond July 13, 1977 January 20, 1981 [12] Jimmy Carter
(acting) Edward Brandt, Jr. May 14, 1981 January 21, 1982 Ronald Reagan
13 VADM C. Everett Koop January 21, 1982 October 1, 1989
(acting) ADM James O. Mason October 1, 1989 March 9, 1990 George H. W. Bush
14 VADM Antonia C. Novello March 9, 1990 June 30, 1993
(acting) RADM Robert A. Whitney July 1, 1993 September 8, 1993 Bill Clinton
15 VADM Joycelyn Elders September 8, 1993 December 31, 1994
(acting) RADM Audrey F. Manley January 1, 1995 July 1, 1997
16 ADM[9] / VADM David Satcher February 13, 1998 February 12, 2002
(acting) RADM Kenneth P. Moritsugu February 13, 2002 August 4, 2002 George W. Bush
17 VADM Richard Carmona August 5, 2002 July 31, 2006
(acting) RADM Kenneth P. Moritsugu August 1, 2006 September 30, 2007
RADM Steven K. Galson October 1, 2007 October 1, 2009
RADM Donald L. Weaver October 1, 2009 November 3, 2009 Barack Obama
18 VADM Regina Benjamin[13] November 3, 2009[14] July 16, 2013
(acting) RADM Boris D. Lushniak July 17, 2013 Ongoing

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Public Health, Commissioned Corps Uniforms and Ranks
  2. ^ David (June 12, 2013). "Surgeon General Regina Benjamin announces resignation". Public Health Newswire. American Public Health Association. Retrieved July 27, 2013. 
  3. ^ HHS – Office of the Surgeon General – About the Office
  4. ^ Julie M. Fenster "Hazardous to Your Health" American Heritage, Oct. 2006.
  5. ^  
  6. ^ Winn, Mari (October 9, 1988). "The Legacy of Dr. Koop". The New York Times. 
  7. ^ Leon Dash, "Joycelyn Elders: From Sharecropper's Daughter to Surgeon General of the United States of America", Washington Monthly, January–February 1997
  8. ^ Gregory D. Curfman, M.D., Stephen Morrissey, Ph.D., and Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D. Where Is the Surgeon General? New England Journal of Medicine October 22, 2014DOI: 10.1056/NEJMe1412890
  9. ^ a b "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. 
  10. ^ "Jesse Leonard Steinfeld (1969-1973)". SurgeonGeneral.gov. 2007-01-04. Retrieved 2014-04-29. 
  11. ^ http://gao.gov/products/094195
  12. ^ "HHS Secretaries - National Institutes of Health (NIH)". Nih.gov. Retrieved 2014-04-29. 
  13. ^ "Obama picks Regina Benjamin as surgeon general". Reuters. July 13, 2009. 
  14. ^ Stobbe, Mike (December 3, 2009). "Surgeon general: More minority doctors needed". WTOP. Retrieved December 5, 2009. 

External links

  • Official website of the U.S. Surgeon General
    • Previous Surgeons General
  • Reports of the Surgeon General from the National Library of Medicine's "Profiles in Science"
Leadership
Organization
Branches
Structure
Operations and history
Personnel
Training
Other
Equipment
Land
Sea
Air
Other