Obama to name Ex New York Health Commissioner as FDA. Pick

[Thrill]

WASHINGTON — President Obama intends to nominate Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, a former New York City health commissioner, to lead the Food and Drug Administration, sidestepping a battle between drug safety advocates and the drug industry, according to people briefed on the decision.

The administration is likely to announce the decision this week, these people said. Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, the health commissioner of Baltimore, who led the Obama administration’s transition team for the F.D.A., will become Dr. Hamburg’s chief deputy, these people said.

Dr. Hamburg, 53, succeeds Dr. Andrew C. von Eschenbach, who led the beleaguered agency from 2005 until last January and often had to deflect critics who accused the Bush administration of letting politics play too forceful a role in science policy.

Her selection, first reported Wednesday on the The Wall Street Journal’s Web site, was hailed by top public health officials and experts.

“Peggy has a deep commitment to the public health and, while she appreciates the vital role of industry, will surely focus on what is best for the public,” said Dr. Harvey V. Fineberg, president of the Institute of Medicine, the medical arm of the National Academy of Sciences.

Dr. Hamburg, who was appointed by Mayor David N. Dinkins as acting commissioner in 1991 and became commissioner the following year, was one of the few top officials asked to remain when Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani took office in 1994. She was best known for developing a tuberculosis control program that produced sharp declines in the incidence of the disease in New York. Under her tenure, child immunization rates rose in the city.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/us/politics/12hamburg.html?_r=1

[Kdillard]

1. Good news.

[karynnj]

2. Here's a cool biography - she sounds like a great pick

"Margaret Hamburg, one of the youngest people ever elected to the Institute of Medicine (IoM, an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences), is a highly regarded expert in community health and bio-defense, including preparedness for nuclear, biological, and chemical threats. As health commissioner for New York City from 1991 to 1997, she developed innovative programs for controlling the spread of tuberculosis and AIDS.

Margaret Hamburg is the daughter of Beatrix and David Hamburg, both distinguished physicians and early role models for her career in medicine. Her mother was the first African-American woman to attend Vassar College and to earn a degree from the Yale University School of Medicine (which had previously excluded black students). Her Jewish father and grandmother taught her to value education and family and to fight discrimination and oppression."
<snip>
In 1990, she left the NIH to serve as deputy health commissioner for New York City. Within a year, she was promoted to health commissioner. It was a difficult, complex, and demanding job, with severe budget constraints and many responsibilities, ranging from clinical services to environmental health. She strove to improve health services for women and children, instituted needle-exchange programs to combat HIV infection, made inroads into curbing the spread of tuberculosis, and initiated the nation's first public-health bio-terrorism defense program. During her term as health commissioner, she also held academic positions at Columbia University School of Public Health and Cornell University Medical College, both in New York City.

While commissioner Dr. Hamburg's innovative treatment plan for tuberculosis (TB) became a model for health departments around the world. In the 1990s, TB was the leading infectious killer of youths and adults and had become resistant to standard drugs. To be effective, new drugs required patients to take pills every day for up to two years, but failure to complete the full course of treatment allowed the bacteria to mutate into drug-resistant strains. Hamburg sent healthcare workers to patients' homes to help manage their drug regimen, and between 1992 and 1997, the TB rate for New York City fell by 46 percent, and by 86 percent for the most resistant strains."

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/changingthefaceofmedicine/physicians/biography_136.html

(go to the link - the 4 paragraph rule was HARD to abide by in this case.)

[firedupdem]

5. Thanks for that link. She sounds like a great choice! n/t

[Adelante]

3. Excellent choice

:thumbsup:

[Cha]

4. Dr Hamburg sounds like she's

a real person who will actually look out for the public's safety instead of basically telling them to fend for themselves.