Sanjay Gupta Would Be Another Inspired Pick

How about a U.S. Surgeon General who still practices neurosurgery from time to time, donates his time to worthy health-related causes around the world and has the media chops to liven up the staid post?  How about Dr. Sanjay Gupta?

Word out tonight is that the Obama team has approached the CNN star who was also a health care adviser to Hillary Clinton when she was First Lady.

I’ll be honest with you, I have no idea who currently holds the surgeon general’s post.  I’m not even going to expend the energy to look because whoever it is won’t be there in a month or two.

I remember Jocelyn Elders – I think she advocated something that the right wingers got all bent out of shape about.  I also remember C. Everett Koop, he was the guy who stood up to the cigarette industry.  I also remember that if you held a picture of Koop upside-down, it looked like Koop right-side up.

In all seriousness we haven’t had a surgeon general since Koop who focused the public’s interest on one or a series of public health concerns in a way that made a difference.  A necessary part of health care reform is going to have to be wellness – or what we call in the business world, “population health management” (PHM)

PHM means you encourage, reward, cajole folks to lose unnecessary weight, quit smoking, exercise, etc.  Along the way, as people shed pounds and breath easier they get off of meds, make fewer trips to the ER and are sick less often.  People are healthier and happier and the business – or society – benefits from lower health care costs.

Gupta would be a perfect pick for surgeon general as he is an accomplished physician, surgeon and is media saavy.  It probably doesn’t hurt that he’s a handsome devil.  Having such a surgeon general would be a great asset to the Obama Administration as it charts its course through reforming this nation’s dysfunctional health care system.