Dissecting American health care Commentaries on health, policy, and politics

Douglas Kamerow — Douglas Kamerow, MD, is a family physician and a specialist in preventive medicine. After graduating from Harvard College, the University of Rochester Medical School, and Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, he spent 20 years in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service. In the PHS he worked as a general practitioner in the National Health Service Corps, as a researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health, and in health policy and leadership positions at both the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and at the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. He retired from the PHS in 2001 with the rank of Assistant Surgeon General. Since then, Dr. Kamerow has been a chief scientist at the nonpartisan research institute RTI International, an editor of the international medical journal BMJ, and a professor at Georgetown University, where he teaches medical students and family medicine residents. Starting in 2007, he wrote the health and health care commentaries in this book, which appeared first in the BMJ or on National Public Radio (NPR).