New US Surgeon General Choice Says a Lot!

President Obama has finally announced his choice for surgeon general, and it is Dr. Regina Benjamin, a 52-year-old family physician who has spent most of her career practicing in a Gulf Coast clinic in Alabama. She graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in 1979, attended Morehouse School of Medicine from 1980 to 1982, and received a doctor of medicine degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1984. She completed residency training in family Medicine at the Medical Center of Central Georgia in 1987, where her medical training was paid for by the National Health Service Corps, under which medical students promise to work in areas with few doctors in exchange for free tuition. She has also earned a master's in business administration in 1991 from Tulane University.

I am hopeful that President Obama's choice of Dr. Benjamin is a clear indication of the direction he wants to take in health care reform. The fact that he chose a family physician, and not a corporate bureaucrat or medical school academician seems to say a lot about what he values!