Poll: Dr. Sanjay Gupta for Surgeon General?
The news of Dr. Gupta’s nomination has prompted a flurry of debate over whether or not Dr. Gupta is adequately qualified for the role, due to his lack of experience in public health. Dr. Val from Get Better Health weighed in, as did Dr. Kevin Pho, also known as KevinMD, a popular blogger in the medical community.
While Dr. Sanjay Gupta doesn’t have experience working in Public Health for a government agency, isn’t Dr. Gupta’s current job at CNN primarily to help inform the public regarding medical issues? According to the official website of the Office of the Surgeon General, the Surgeon General serves as the “chief health educator” for the country, “providing Americans the best scientific information available on how to improve their health and reduce their risk for illness and injury.” An educator is someone who can not only convey knowledge, but also get the buy-in of the audience to apply that information. That requires not only medical and scientific knowledge, but charisma, communication skills, and persuasion skills.
What are your thoughts? Has the Obama administration based their nomination too heavily on public relations over public health?
Dr. Gupta’s job at CNN is to help increase the network’s ratings. That’s what they pay him for, though he may also “help inform the public regarding medical issues” along the way. But the selection of which issues he covers is done based on the needs of his employer not the public. Sometimes the two entities’ priorities might coincide but sometimes not.
Now all that said, maybe he’ll be fine. I think it really depends on the quality of his staff because–public health background or not–one person can’t know everything. To make the most his charisma and communications skills, he’ll need a good team, preferably people with the public health experience he lacks.
Thanks for your input Laureen. Good points! It will be interesting to see what happens!
Regards,
Andrea