The (Small-P) Politics of Medicine | Josh Sharfstein, MD

The Doctor's Art

For many people, the idea of politics in healthcare conjures up hyperpartisanship, where power and party loyalty trump public interest. But Joshua Sharfstein, MD is passionate about politics and health care because to him, these are opportunities to bring together wide-ranging expertise and navigate seemingly irreconcilable interests to implement changes that change the lives of millions. Dr. Sharfstein has led a career reflective of this passion. He has served as the Secretary of the Maryland Department of Health, the Principal Deputy Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration, and the Commissioner of Health for Baltimore City, and is currently Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Over the course of our conversation, Dr. Sharfstein discusses why public health matters, how he handles partisanship in politics, and his career highs and lows and lessons learned on effective crisis management.

In this episode we discuss:

2:16 - How medicine and politics ended up being a twin focus of Dr. Sharfstein’s career

5:07 - The milestones of Dr. Sharfstein’s career in healthcare leadership

8:39 - Why healthcare arouses such intense partisan political feelings

13:51 - How public health’s messaging and communication must change in light of current advancements in information technology

18:42 - The formative public health crises that Dr. Sharfstein has dealt with throughout his career

26:33 - Ideas for strengthening the US’s weak public health system

29:28 - How COVID-19 revealed the flaws of our public health system

33:55 - Dr. Sharfstein’s advice for clinicians who are interested in working in public health

38:00 - Sustaining drive and momentum amid bureaucracy in public health

41:56 - A sampling of the unsafe products that Dr. Sharfstein has successfully gotten taken off of the market

Dr. Sharfstein is the author of The Public Health Crisis Survival Guide: Leadership and Management in Trying Times.

You can follow Dr. Joshua Sharfstein on Twitter @DrJoshS.

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