The Surgeon General

Back in January, I wrote a long post arguing that while the Surgeon General has a major role to play in raising public awareness about health issues, the person who holds that position has to be a strong administrator as well. It looks like President Obama's second pick for the position, Dr. Regina Benjamin (CNN doc Sanjay Gupta bowed out), has the administrative side of her job down pat. She's the recipient of a MacArthur Genius Grant, but she's most famous for rebuilding the rural medical clinic she runs in Alabama after it was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina, and then after it burned down. If that doesn't take administrative skills, I don't know what does. And given disparities in available care between rural and urban areas, her experience should be an interesting factor in her term as Surgeon General.