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Public Health Leadership Comes to FDA

The world will soon realize that the new FDA leadership–Dr. Hamburg and Dr. Sharfstein– come from an entirely different mold than their predecessors. When Dr. Hamburg is sworn in, she will formally begin an era of public health leadership at the agency. FDA staff and agency stakeholders will eventually come to appreciate that this difference is good for FDA.

It is a perfect time to put the agency in the hands of experienced public health leaders with real world experience. The shift will be both interesting and salutary. Notably, there will be a consistent standard in decisionmaking. The answer to every question and pressing issue will be: we will explore what is right from a public health perspective, and then act accordingly.

FDA staff and agency stakeholders argue for their position by saying they are advancing the public health, while secretly believing that other factors will drive the final decision. It is disarming, then, for the Commissioner to actually treat “public health benefit” as the agency’s North Star.  Of course there will be many disputes, but everyone will have to build their rationale on public health grounds, knowing that it is the real basis of decisionmaking.

Several misunderstandings drive concerns about public health leadership at FDA. Public health is about helping people and communities to get healthy and stay healthy. Prevention is preferred because it preserves health, while therapies “only” restore health. Preferring prevention is not the same as being against therapy. Public health is not anti-therapeutic nor could any FDA commissioner be anti-therapeutic.

Public health does not require safety to be an absolute value that cannot be offset by other considerations. Innovation to restore health is just as much a public health value as safety. Dr. Hamburg has affirmed this.

What it means to run a big city health department has also been misunderstood. The imperative to act is immediate and real, but you learn that “what appears to be real” has to be examined before any decisions are made. Nothing you’re told can be relied upon until it had been rechecked and sometimes double and triple re-checked. An over-simple example: reports about unsanitary conditions in a restaurant might just be from the eatery across the street that has lost business.

Dr. Hamburg and Dr. Sharfstein have limited track records on FDA issues. This uncertainty breeds anxiety. Six months from now, everyone will see that the agency is being run by steady, pragmatic leaders. Indeed, it is quite difficult to run the public health department of a large city without these virtues.

 


 

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