WASHINGTON, March 26 (UPI) -- The White House's nominee for surgeon general is more than a talented trauma surgeon; he's also a sheriff's deputy, SWAT team member and Special Forces veteran.
Medical and public advocacy groups had mixed reactions to President George W. Bush's selections Tuesday of Arizona surgeon Dr. Richard Carmona, 52, to be surgeon general, and Dr. Elias Zerhouni, 50, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to be director of the National Institutes of Health.
"These are distinguished physicians who have worked tirelessly to save lives and to improve lives," Bush said. "They bring exceptional knowledge and skill to these jobs and they are absolutely dedicated to improving the health of all Americans."
Carmona began his medical career as a Special Forces medic in Vietnam, where he earned both the Bronze Star and a Purple Heart. After graduating at the top of his medical school class from the University of California, San Francisco, he moved to the Tuscon area and helped develop the first trauma care system in the southern part of Arizona. He served as a deputy sheriff for Pima County, Ariz., helping lead and train the county's special weapons and tactics team for 16 years.
"When I first learned that Dr. Carmona once dangled out a moving helicopter, I worried that maybe he wasn't the best guy to educate Americans about reducing health risks," Bush joked. "But that turned out to be just one of several times he risked his life to save others."
One of those incidents occurred in 1999, when Carmona, off-duty at the time, came across a traffic incident involving a suspect armed with a handgun. Despite attempts at negotiation, the suspect fired, grazing Carmona's temple; he returned fire, and the suspect later died despite Carmona's emergency care.
Carmona is widely respected among his Arizona peers, said Dr. Timothy Flaherty, chairman of the American Medical Association's board of directors. His non-traditional career path is a plus in dealing with emergency response situations, Flaherty told United Press International.
Flaherty said Carmona's many achievements, particularly in efforts to promote gun safety and safe weapons storage, should outweigh the negative connotations of having been involved in a fatal shooting.
Arinn Dixon, director of violence prevention for the group Physicians for Social Responsibility, said Carmona's dual law enforcement/medical background leaves him well prepared for dealing with public health issues. The organization reserves final judgement on his nomination, however, pending further research, she said.
"I would hope he continues the good work of (former) Surgeon General (David) Satcher on addressing the issue of firearm violence as a public health epidemic," Dixon told UPI.
Martin Apple, president of the Council of Scientific Society Presidents, said the surgeon general will have an additional role in homeland security efforts in the coming years. Carmona's experience in emergency medicine, including handling situations that might overwhelm available resources, was therefore probably a significant factor in his nomination, Apple told UPI.
Zerhouni, is chairman of the radiology department and executive vice dean for clinical services at Johns Hopkins. He earned his medical degree at the University of Algiers before emigrating to the U.S. and completing his radiologic training at Hopkins. He has been a leader in developing magnetic resonance imaging methods, especially MR angiography and intravascular MR imaging probes.
The AMA's Flaherty said that while radiology isn't usually seen as a research-intensive area, Zerhouni's experience in overseeing many research operations at Johns Hopkins will fit well with the NIH's focus on clinical studies.
At the press conference, Bush pointed out that Zerhouni shares his view that medical research shouldn't harm some to benefit others. That statement lends credence to reports Zerhouni, in order to be picked, had to toe the administration line on limiting research with embryonic stem cells, which hold vast medical potential but are currently gathered from living embryos, killing them.
Despite such talk, the anti-abortion American Life League criticized Zerhouni's nomination. His earlier support of the Institute for Cell Engineering at Johns Hopkins, which includes studies of stem cells, amounts to a lack of respect for human life, the group said. The AMA's Flaherty said the NIH should continue supporting research into stem cells.
"Hopefully the balance will be arrived at in this area so we can have medical advances without many limitations, but at the same time having considerations for people's very strong feelings," Flaherty told UPI.
The nominations will go before the Senate for confirmation. Sen. Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education Labor and Pensions Committee, said he would convene hearings on the nominations as soon as possible.
