Dr. Thomas R. Frieden (born December 7, 1960) has been New York City Health Commissioner since 2002. He worked to help control an outbreak of drug-resistant tuberculosis in New York City in the early 1990s, and assisted India in implementing a tuberculosis control program that has saved more than 1.6 million lives since 1997. As head of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, he helped lead initiatives to reduce smoking, eliminate artificial trans fat from restaurant food, require posting of calorie information in chain restaurants and expand the use of electronic health records. On May 15, 2009, Frieden was named Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).

As an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from 1990 to 1992, Tom Frieden documented a large outbreak of tuberculosis with drug resistance in New York City. His work fostered public awareness and helped improve public funding (city, state and federal) for tuberculosis control.2,3 In 1992, he was appointed assistant commissioner and director of the Health Department’s Bureau of Tuberculosis Control, where he faced a large and fast-growing epidemic of tuberculosis, including HIV-related and drug-resistant tuberculosis.1,4 New York City rapidly controlled the epidemic, reducing overall incidence by nearly half and cutting multidrug-resistant tuberculosis by 80%.5 The city's program became a model for tuberculosis control.6,7

From 1996 to 2002, Frieden was based in India, assisting with national tuberculosis control efforts. As a medical officer for the World Health Organization on loan from the CDC, he helped the government of India implement the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program.8,9,10,11 By 2006, this program had expanded to cover the entire country12 and as of mid-2008 had treated 9 million patients, saving more than 1.6 million lives.13 The program publishes detailed quarterly reports on the quality of tuberculosis treatment in every district of India.14 During this time, Frieden established a network of Indian physicians to help India's state and local governments implement the program.15He also helped the Tuberculosis Research Center in Chennai, India, establish a program to rigorously monitor the impact of tuberculosis control services.16,17