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Sanjay Gupta, Obama’s choice for Surgeon-General

Dr. Sanjay Gupta

WASHINGTON: President-elect Barack Obama has approached CNN’s chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta to be the country’s next Surgeon General, according to the network.

CNN said it had kept Gupta from reporting on health care policy and other matters involving the incoming Obama administration since learning he was under consideration for the post.

Two Democrats with knowledge of the discussions over the Surgeon General spot said Mr. Gupta was under consideration but cautioned there had not yet been a final decision on who would fill the post. Mr. Obama’s transition office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Gupta hosts ‘House Call’ on CNN, contributes reports to CBS News, and writes a column for Time magazine. He is a neurosurgeon and is on the faculty at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. During President Bill Clinton’s administration, he was a White House fellow and special adviser to then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

The Surgeon General typically is not heavily involved in shaping an administration’s policy, but it can be a very effective advocate. Past Surgeons General have proved instrumental in battling tobacco and AIDS.

Mr. Gupta is of Indian and Pakistani descent; his parents moved from India in the 1960s to Michigan to work as engineers for the Ford company. — AP

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