Vivek Murthy ’03 Confirmed as U.S. Surgeon General

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, a member of the Yale SOM Class of 2003, has been confirmed as surgeon general of the United States by the U.S. Senate.  The vote was 57-43, according to the New York Times.

Murthy, who previously served as surgeon general during the Obama administration, wrote on Twitter, “I’m deeply grateful to be confirmed by the Senate to serve once again as your Surgeon General. We've endured great hardship as a nation over the past year, and I look forward to working with you to help our nation heal and create a better future for our children.”

Murthy, an early graduate of Yale’s joint MD-MBA program, was a hospitalist attending physician and instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School and the founder of Doctors for America before being named surgeon general by Obama. After leaving government, he wrote the book Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World, which argued that loneliness is a pressing public health concern.

Dr. Howard Forman, a professor in  the practice of management at Yale SOM and the director of the MD-MBA program, wrote on Twitter, “Congratulations to @vivek_murthy, our nation’s (former and) next Surgeon General. We need his steady hands, keen mind, compassion and thoughtfulness.”