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Murthy not “eminently qualified”

2 min read

I write to offer a counterpoint to your Wednesday editorial supporting the confirmation of Vivek Murthy as surgeon general of the United States.

You purport that Murthy is “more than eminently qualified”, yet Murthy holds the lowest rank of instructor in the academic spectrum of instructor, assistant and associate professor and, finally, professor. As a 37 year-old instructor only eight years removed from training, he would not qualify to lead his own division within his current department, making his appointment as surgeon general confounding. When comparing Murthy to surgeons general of the last 50 years, they were each, on average, 57 years-old, with none holding an academic rank less than professor. They were all preeminent physicians with significant accomplishments prior to their appointments, such as presidents, deans and associate deans of medical schools, chairs of departments, directors of the Centers for Disease Control and the National Institutes of Health, and leaders of health care systems.

Contrast this to Murthy’s commendable but sparse experience – two years out of training, he co-founded Doctors for Obama, which eventually morphed into Doctors for America, a political group advocating and supporting the Affordable Care Act. Since then, he additionally founded a cloud-based start-up company to facilitate medical clinical trials, as well as a nonprofit AIDS education organization, and has been an advocate for improving public health.

Murthy is a bright young physician with laudable accomplishments thus far and enormous potential. He may have been a reasonable selection for surgeon general in the future. However, Murthy is not “eminently qualified” when compared to surgeons general of the past 50 years.

James G. Cain

McMurray

Cain is a visiting associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh and serves on the board of directors of the Pennsylvania Society of Anesthesiologists.

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