Deputy Chief Medical Officer Research Articles

Interview: Progress on the FDA's Critical Path Initiative

Janet Woodcock is the Director of the US FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Dr Woodcock has held various positions within the FDA's Office of the Commissioner from October 2003 until 1 April, 2008, as Deputy Commissioner and Chief Medical Officer, Deputy Commissioner for Operations and Chief Operating Officer and Director of the Critical Path Programs. She oversaw scientific and medical regulatory operations for the FDA. Dr Woodcock served as Director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research at the FDA from 1994 to 2005. She previously served in other positions at the FDA including Director of the Office of Therapeutics Research and Review and Acting Deputy Director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. Dr Woodcock received her MD from Northwestern Medical School (IL, USA), and completed further training and held teaching appointments at the Pennsylvania State University (PA, USA)and the University of California in San Francisco (CA, USA). She joined the FDA in 1986.

The HBSC study in Scotland: can the study influence policy and practice in schools?

This paper reviews the role of the HBSC study in Scotland and suggests that the HBSC study has growing status and relevance in Scotland for a number of reasons as it continues to provide insights for politicians, policy makers, education professionals and health promotion practitioners. The paper will set out the historical background to the HBSC study and the associated research and health promoting school developments in Scotland. It will explore the factors that have been important in its influential role in contributing to health promotion policy developments in the education and health sectors in Scotland. It is suggested that this role has been shaped by: The changing political context and the developing political will to improve Scotland's health. The close practical links between the HBSC study and the national agency for health promotion. The growing credibility of the study in the education sector in Scotland as well as the health sector. The growing evidence of the study's influence through: references to the study in government reports; representation of HBSC researchers on government policy and strategy committees; deputy chief medical Officer being on HBSC committee; increased use of HBSC outputs in schools and education authorities; linked developments in the health promoting schools movement in Scotland. The development of a training and capacity building resource for teachers which draws extensively on data from the HBSC study. The continuity of the study over nineteen years resulting in a unique and valued data set. The development of good communication strategies which has resulted in high awareness of the data in the education and health sectors and the Scottish media. The growing understanding that HBSC is an important international study and that Scotland has played a significant role in co-ordinating the international dimension of the study and the close links between Scotland and the European Regional Office of The World Health Organization (WHO).

CancerScope

CancerScope

Overview of content

The content of this Supplement of Global Health Promotion is abstracted from presentations at the conference ‘Closing the gap in a generation: health equity through action on the social determinants of health’, which was held on 6–7 November 2008, in London. On the first day John Humphrys of the BBC welcomed the participants and introduced each plenary speaker. The speeches they gave are reproduced in the ‘Addresses’ section of this Supplement. Thematerial printed here is substantially the same as was presented at the conference, with some modification to suit print media. The Addresses are published as they were received from the authors. Plenary addresses were also given on the second day of the conference, and they, too, are presented in the Addresses section. All the plenary addresses presented at the conference are published in this Supplement The morning plenary session on 6 November concluded with interviews conducted by Nick Boyd, an international health consultant, with audience participation facilitated by Clive Needle of EuroHealthNet. The interviewees were members of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health of the World Health Organization. Those interviewed were Gail Wilensky, Senior Fellow, Project Hope; and Hoda Rashad, Research Professor at the Social Research Centre of the American University in Cairo. Gail Wilensky presented introductory remarks, which are included in the ‘Interviews’ section of this Supplement. During the 6 November afternoon session, John Humphrys interviewed Robert Madelin, Director General for Health and Consumer Protection, European Commission; Rudolph Cummings, Health Lead, CARICOM; CommissionerMirai Chatterjee, Coordinator of Social Security for India’s SelfEmployed Women’s Association; and Commissioner Giovanni Berlinguer, Member of the European Parliament. Robert Madelin, Mirai Chatterjee and Giovanni Berlinguer presented introductory remarks, which are included in the ‘Interviews’ section of this Supplement. During mid-afternoon, Richard Horton, Editor of The Lancet, chaired a panel session titled ‘Equity through development: a panel discussion on balancing the demands of social and economic development’. The panellists were: Armin Filder, Lead Advisor for Health Policy and Strategy, the World Bank; Peter Scherer, Head of Health Sector, OECD; Asha George, Health Specialist, Community Based Approaches in the Policy and Evidence Unit of the Health Programme Division at UNICEF; Tim Evans, Assistant Director General, WHO; Commissioner Ndioro Ndiaye, Deputy Director General, International Organization for Migration. Peter Scherer, Asha George and Ndioro Ndiaye presented introductory remarks, which are included in the ‘Panels’ section of this Supplement. The first day concluded with a summary of key points from the day’s sessions, presented by Sir Michael Marmot. On 7 November, following a series of plenary addresses in the morning, Fiona Adshead, Deputy Chief Medical Officer and Chief Government Advisor of Health Inequalities, Department of

Border control

The government wants to bar doctors from beyond the European Union from gaining postgraduate medical training places in the United Kingdom. <b>Edwin Borman</b>, from the BMA’s international committee, <b>Ramesh Mehta</b>, president of the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO), and <b>Graham Winyard</b>, a former postgraduate dean and deputy chief medical officer discuss the government’s policy with <i>BMJ</i> features editor <b>Deborah Cohen</b>

Learning resource for professionals offering antenatal and newborn care

Learning resource for professionals offering antenatal and newborn care

Coaching for doctors: a road to salvation

I n a recent Career Focus article, the deputy chief medical officer Aidan Halligan emphasised the importance of coaching for doctors throughout their careers.1 In fact, coaching is one of the key “seven pillars” of Modernising Medical Careers . But as an education supervisor with more than a decade's experience of working in the NHS, I was not convinced that coaching doctors in the workplace would help them to realise their hopes and aspirations. My view, like that of many others, was that coaching doctors is not the same as coaching athletes. More importantly, as an education supervisor for foundation doctors, I was expected to have the skills to coach the training doctors and help them make good career decisions. But how could I coach juniors if I didn't believe in it, and did I even have the right skills? It was during this period of jumbled thoughts that two colleagues (a doctor and a director …

Modernising medical careers

It is over six months since Modernising Medical Careers exploded onto the scene--a radical, wide ranging set of proposals that will change medical training as we currently know it. Now that the dust has settled and everyone seems to agree that it is a good idea, where do we go from here? Rhona MacDonald went to see Aidan Halligan, deputy chief medical officer for England, to find out what is happening to make the proposed foundation programmes for newly qualified doctors a reality

Health improvement and the RSM. Interview by Robin Fox.

Dame Deidre Hine, who takes office as President of the Royal Society of Medicine this autumn, qualified at the Welsh National School of Medicine in 1961. After junior hospital posts and a period in general practice she obtained the dph and was appointed to a combined clinical and administrative post in community child health with the Glamorgan County Council. In 1974 she became a specialist in community medicine (child health) to the South Glamorgan Health Authority. In 1980 she took up the post of senior lecturer in the Department of Geriatric Medicine in her former medical school (now the University of Wales College of Medicine), combining this with continued work as a specialist in community medicine. In 1993 she was appointed to the post of Deputy Chief Medical Officer in the Welsh Office. Five years later she left the Civil Service to become director of the Welsh Breast Cancer Screening Service. In 1990 she returned to the Welsh Office as Chief Medical Officer, a post from which she retired in 1997. Some of her thoughts on the National Health Service will be known to JRSM readers from her Jephcott Lecture last year (July 1999 JRSM, pp. 332-338). In August last year she was appointed to chair the Commission for Health Improvement (CHI). She is interviewed here by Robin Fox.

HIV testing and the midwife

On 13 August 1999 the Department of Health (DOH) issued a press release on targets to cut numbers of babies born with HIV by 80% by 2002 (DOH, 1999) which received widespread coverage on national television. Many women and midwives will no doubt have seen the news broadcasts of the announcement by Tessa Jowell, Minister for Public Health. These targets have been recommended by the Expert Group, set up in April 1999 and chaired by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr Jeremy Metters. Key aspects of the press release, are as follows:

British government looks at effects of wealth on health

The British government is to examine the links between social inequalities and health as part of its continuing review of the Health of the Nation targets. This comes after more than a decade of official reluctance to discuss the issue. A new interdepartmental working group will be chaired by Dr Jeremy Metters, deputy chief medical officer, who announced the formation of the new group at a conference on social inequalities and health organised by …

‘Achieving Resource Management’: a national exhibition and conference

with the management of the Department of Health, I would avoid at all costs allowing the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr Diana Walford, to illustrate her opening address at a conference on the use of infor mation technology and resource management with totally unreadable slides, accompanied by the expla nation that the Department of Health were trying out a new graphics package which didn't work.

LONDON

<h3>Importation of New Drugs.</h3> —The procedure governing the importation of new drugs into Great Britain from the United States causes considerable confusion on both sides of the Atlantic. In a lecture, which was recently published in the<i>British Medical Journal</i>, (<b>2:</b>385, 1952) Sir Weldon Dalrymple-Champneys, deputy chief medical officer, Ministry of Health, who is largely responsible for this branch of the ministry's activities, has outlined the present position. The government departments primarily concerned with the importation of drugs are His Majesty's Customs and Excise and the Board of Trade, but they depend on the Ministry of Health for expert advice whenever medical remedies are involved. This applies particularly to "therapeutic substances" as defined by the Therapeutic Substances Act of 1925, i. e., substances "the purity or potency of which cannot be adequately tested by chemical means." Such substances include insulin, penicillin, and blood products. Difficulties arise with preparations

Presidential Address on Some Aspects of the Problem of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease, by THOMAS CARNWATH, D.S.O., M.B., D.Sc., D.P.H., Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health. (Fellow.)

Presidential Address on Some Aspects of the Problem of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Disease, by THOMAS CARNWATH, D.S.O., M.B., D.Sc., D.P.H., Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Ministry of Health. (Fellow.)