Tell Your Story

1. What influenced you to embark on a career in preventive medicine?

My father was a ABPM Board Certified physician. In fact he was involved in ACPM leadership back in the day. His certificate was issued in "Aviation Medicine" as he completed his residency in the mid 1950's. I grew up as the son of an MD/MPH professional who instructed at USAFSAM and served as the school's Director of Education. I followed in his footsteps as an Air Force Medical Service physician with the MD/MPH credentials. We both had the good fortune to serve for thirty year military careers.

2. Although physicians in the College are quite humble, what is your proudest contribution to the field of preventive medicine?

Because I was able to serve in many personally rewarding roles, it is difficult to highlight one contribution above others. I served as the USAFSAM Aerospace Medicine Residency director after having supervised Air Force Flight Surgeon training for a couple of years. Eventually, I was elected as an ABPM member and in due time as Chair of the Board. I'm a past President of ACPM and of AsMA. Although I've identified a number of my past roles, the opportunity to serve was the key

3. What is your favorite memory of your engagement with ACPM?

During my time as ACPM President we reinvented the annual meeting. Along with the ACPM staff and a number of gifted fellow members, the name of the meeting, its professional alignment, and its agenda were changed in a manner that was viewed as a major improvement. It was a deep and memorable experience to have taken that journey for ACPM many years ago.

4. What experiential advice would you like to share with future generations of physicians seeking board certification in preventive medicine?

My consistent advice for physicians or physicians to be is to engage in residency training as soon as possible. Careers turn out to be very short when one looks back on them for later years. There is no time in life to linger before being trained to participate in one of the many possible preventive medicine careers. The many opportunities to contribute and enjoy the profession await those with the interest and passion to do so.

5. What advice would you like to share to practicing preventive medicine physicians early in their careers?

Life long learning is essential and it comes one day at a time. Everyday provides opportunities to expand knowledge for those with enquiring minds. Following the routine practice of learning as you go is the key.

6. What else would you like to share with us?

I'll add a couple of points to the comments I've already offered. I attended and graduated from high school in Izmir, Turkey. My father commanded the Air Force's Epidemiology Laboratory located there at time. I was able to do high school science projects in the lab to build an early understanding of global health and emerging infections. My preventive medicine endeavors began early. The Air Force provided my college, medical school, and graduate school education.

1. What influenced you to embark on a career in preventive medicine?

The Chair of Internal Medicine at Yale, in whose program I spent my PGY1 year, became my mentor and advisor. He identified in my approach to our patients a compelling interest in the circumstances of their illness and the community to which they would return. He counseled that these were core to the practice of preventive medicine and steered me in that direction. He referred me to the chief of the US Army Office of Preventive Medicine, who agreed. The rest was a match made in heaven!

2. Although physicians in the College are quite humble, what is your proudest contribution to the field of preventive medicine?

We all know that it "takes a village", but I am often credited as founding the field which has become known as Pharmacoepidemiology. I had the unprecedented opportunity, in 1981, to join the world-wide Wellcome Foundation, a British based pharmaceutical company, and became their first program chief, combining drug safety and epidemiology. Their pioneering work in antiviral drugs led them to develop the first safe and effective anti-HIV drug, AZT. What a privilege to lead the safety team.

3. What is your favorite memory of your engagement with ACPM?

HAH! There are so very many. In 1994, as president-elect of the College, I was pressed into service, given the unavailability of the ACPM President, to participate in a White House Summit of the Presidents of all the major medical specialty societies to recognize President Clinton's health care reform effort. We each had a few private seconds with the President and with Mrs. Clinton. My advice: "we are proud to support your leadership in preventive medicine aspects of reform. Stay the course."

4. What experiential advice would you like to share with future generations of physicians seeking board certification in preventive medicine?

Society is unable to recognize competence in our field. Boards reflect your willingness to be accountable and trustworthy. Trust is a key to your effectiveness in a preventive medicine effort. Part of that trustworthiness is the support of our colleagues, who respect Board Certification. As a County and later a State Health Officer, my fellow physicians became my right hand. Many times one of them rose to back me up when a key policy leader/legislator or community leader needed to come along!

5. What advice would you like to share to practicing preventive medicine physicians early in their careers?

There is no such thing as a single preventive medicine career. With my friends, and certainly in my case, our careers have involved many different, often totally unexpected roles. Don't sell yourself short. In my case, I went from fifteen years as a public health department director, with staff numbering in the thousands, to a practicing epidemiologist with a staff of one. After fifteen years of that, I found myself as a faculty member in Public Health Leadership. Who would have predicted it?

6. What else would you like to share with us?

Just when we thought we had figured Preventive Medicine out, along came COVID-19. The key ingredient for Preventive Medicine's leadership was our ability to harness our core competencies and redirect them toward unknown, even unclear challenges. This has put us in the leadership for community response and preparedness; vaccine readiness and risk assessment and communication; and equitable balanced effective interventions for containment of and recovery from the pandemic. "Our time has come!

1. What influenced you to embark on a career in preventive medicine?

After almost a decade in clinical family practice, it became clear that I was on the tail end of the patient's disease trajectory. In order to make a bigger difference in the health of the population, it was clear to me that I needed to work farther upstream on preventive medicine and public health, especially with respect to tobacco use.

2. Although physicians in the College are quite humble, what is your proudest contribution to the field of preventive medicine?

organized a team of statisticians and economists to accurately estimate the tobacco-attributable economic costs for health care (published in the MMWR: 74. CDC. Medical-care expenditures attributable to cigarette smoking--United States, 1993. MMWR 1994;43:469-472. This led eventually to the Multistate Agreement between States Attorneys General and the tobacco industry, a settlement of $287 billion dollars in liability.

3. What is your favorite memory of your engagement with ACPM?

Interacting with colleagues at Annual Meetings.

4. What experiential advice would you like to share with future generations of physicians seeking board certification in preventive medicine?

Get involved in policy; go work in Washington DC or in state capitols. Understand how politics and policy development work. Work in Public Service sometime in your career

5. What advice would you like to share to practicing preventive medicine physicians early in their careers?

Same as above, but take a real job in government service; be a change agent inside the policy apparatus.

6. What else would you like to share with us?

Always look for others to mentor and to those outside of the medical discipline with whom to work. People like economists, environmentalists, and artists. They are educators, influencers, and connectors to people outside of health professions.