People in the news

Thomas Frieden

Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (since May 2009)

(Chris Hondros/Getty Images)

Why He Matters

In the midst of a major international flu outbreak and the launch of his campaign to overhaul America's health-care system, President Obama tapped Former New York City Health Commissioner Frieden to head the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), America's major public-health agency.

Frieden has what the Obama administration needs: experience fighting both the infectious diseases that spread quickly around the globe and the chronic diseases that threaten to bankrupt the nation's health-care system.

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Background

At a Glance

Career History: New York City Health Commissioner (2002 to 2009); Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (1990 to 2002)
Hometown: New York City, New York
Alma Mater: Oberlin College, B.A., 1982; Columbia Medical School, M.D.; Columbia School of Public Health, M.P.H.

Office: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1600 Clifton Rd.Atlanta, GA 30333(800)232-4636
Web site

Path to Power

A New York City-native, Frieden attended Oberlin College in Ohio where he was pre-med and majored in philosophy. He called writing his 200-page honors thesis on 20th-century philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein a "thrilling experience."

He graduated from Oberlin summa cum laude in 1982, and went on to earn both a medical degree and a master's in public health from Columbia University. He stayed at Columbia for his residency in internal medicine, and did sub-specialty training in infectious diseases at Yale University.

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CDC Epidemiologist

Frieden joined the CDC in 1990 as an Epidemiologic Intelligence Service officer, tracking disease with the New York City Department of Health.

He worked on a wide range of health issues affecting the metropolis, but Frieden's specialty was drug-resistant tuberculosis.

In 1992, he was made assistant commissioner and director of the city's Bureau of Tuberculosis Control. He joined forces with then-New York City Health Commissioner (and current Obama Food and Drug Administration head nominee) Margaret A. Hamburg to tackle drug-resistant TB in New York City.

Hamburg was making a name for herself as the youngest New York City health commissioner, and together, the two created innovative programs that included interacting with patients in their own homes. The programs reduced the cases of certain types of tuberculosis by 80 percent.

Public Health in India

In 1996, after the success of the New York program, Frieden went to India, a nation where an exploding population and cramped living conditions contributed to the rampant spread of tuberculosis. He stayed for five years, helping the Indian government build a public-health system and establish a tuberculosis-control program which is estimated to have saved more than a million lives.

After five years in India, the September 2001 terrorist attacks made Friedan realize it was time to return to his native New York.

New York City Health Commissioner

In January 2002, Frieden was named the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health. He was in charge of the well-being of a city still reeling from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and a series of anthrax threats.

Over the next seven years, Frieden focused on ending smoking, increasing cancer screening and halting the spread of AIDS.

From his perch overseeing the public health of America's largest city, Frieden also made the nutrition of new Yorkers his purview, banning trans-fats in restaurants and, in an innovative program, requiring chain restaurants to prominently post calorie counts on menus.

CDC Head

In May 2009, in the midst of fear over a global swine flu epidemic, Obama named him to head CDC.

The Issues

Headquartered in Atlanta, CDC is the nation's major public-health organization. While its modern-day microbe hunters track outbreaks, the agency's key task is prevention, whether that means recommending vaccines, drafting response-plans for a bio-terrorist attack or educating Americans about nutrition and health.

A trained infectious disease specialist, Frieden has the disease-fighting chops to head the nation's premier epidemiological organization. What makes him unique is his experience fighting both infectious diseases, such as tuberculosis and HIV, as well as "lifestyle" diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease. While the former is a key part of America's national security in a global world, the latter could go a long way toward helping Obama pass health-care reform.

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Public Health and Prevention

President Obama is poised to overhaul the nation's health-care system, but he needs to bring down skyrocketing health-care costs to do so.

Freiden made it his mission to reduce costly, chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease and cancer among New Yorkers. As the city's health commissioner, he took aim at chronic disease by attacking causes. He launched programs that reduced the rate of cigarette smoking, and reports show that he managed to cut smoking among teens by nearly half. ("Whenever he sees anybody smoking in New York City," his former communications director, Sandra Mullin, told New York magazine, "he considers it his fault.")

Frieden tried to shrink American waistlines, banning the use of cooking oils with trans-fats in restaurants throughout the city, requiring chain restaurants to list calories counts prominently alongside menu items, and putting ads touting a 2,000-calorie-a-day limit in New York City subway cars.

"He's done more in his four years than most public commissioners in their whole careers," says Allan Rosenfield, dean of Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. "He's out in front: He's going where public health needs to go."

By 2009, Frieden had set his sights on limiting food-producers' use of sodium, which has been linked to high-blood pressure.

As CDC head, he may get the chance to bring some of his innovative techniques to the whole country.

Big Brother?

While many public-health advocates praised Frieden's aggressive tactics, he was sometimes criticized for being too involved in the health of the public.

The trans-fat ban ruffled the feathers of some New Yorkers, who argued they should be able to choose whether they ate healthfully or not.

Audrey Clash, a pro-smoking activist, told Frieden, "Your approach to public health shows contempt for the public, contempt for the marketplace, contempt for the principles of autonomy and choice. Our bodies aren't yet the property of the state, nor yet the city."

Electronic Medical Records

As New York City health commissioner, Frieden pushed to convert documents kept by community health centers to electronic medical records. These records, which keep all patient information from multiple care-givers in a single electronic file, are a key part of the Obama administration's proposed overhaul of the health-care system. Experts hope electronic medical records will cut costs by reducing medical error and waste.

In his January 2009 stimulus bill, Obama included $2 billion toward the goal of electrifying medical records, led by National Health Care Information Technology Coordinator David Blumenthal.

The Network

Frieden worked with then-New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on innovative and very successful tuberculosis reduction programs in the early 1990s.

Additional Resources