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| Meet the New Deputy Chief Medical Officer |
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CAPT David Rutstein was selected as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer effective 1 June 2005. He is responsible for providing leadership and
coordination of Public Health Service (PHS) medical professional affairs for the Office of the Surgeon General and the Department.
CAPT Rutstein will provide guidance and advice to the Surgeon General and the Physician Professional Advisory Committee on matters such as the
recruitment, assignment, deployment, retention, and career development of PHS physicians. |
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CAPT Rutstein attended both Morehouse School of Medicine and Brown University Medical School, receiving his medical degree from Brown in 1983.
After an initial year of internal medicine residency at Salem Hospital in Salem, MA, he completed 3 more years of residency
training in family medicine at Natividad Medical Center in Salinas, CA. He became a diplomate of the American Board of Family Practice in 1987,
and re-certified in 1994 and 2000. |
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After completing residency training, CAPT Rutstein served for 13 years as a National Health Service Corps (NHSC) family physician in the state
hospitals of Pohnpei and Yap, both in the Federated States of Micronesia. While in Micronesia, he directed
a wide array of clinical and public health initiatives, substantially improving the health care and public
health infrastructure in the country. In 2000, he returned from Micronesia to assume the Chief Clinical
Officer position and subsequently the Chief Medical Officer position of the NHSC, with broad administrative
and leadership responsibilities concerning clinical and public health issues. In 2003, he became the
Deputy Associate Administrator for Health Professions in the Health Resources and Services Administration
(HRSA), sharing responsibility for the development, distribution, and retention of the health care workforce
serving underserved populations in the United States. In 2005, he assumed his current position as the
Director of HRSA’s Office of International Health Affairs and Senior Advisor to the HRSA Administrator. |
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CAPT Rutstein maintains memberships in several medical and public health professional organizations including
the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Public Health Association, the Commissioned Officers
Association, the Reserve Officers Association, and the Pacific Basin Medical Association. He has been a regular
corps officer since 2004 and has received numerous awards and honors from PHS and the private sector. These
include the PHS Distinguished Service Medal, the PHS Outstanding Service Medal with Valor, the PHS Citation,
the PHS Outstanding Unit Citation, the PHS Crisis Response Service Award, two PHS Isolated Hardship Awards,
the PHS Foreign Duty Award, and an Honorary Medical Degree as well as a Distinguished Alumnus Award, both
from Morehouse School of Medicine. |
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In addition to his administrative responsibilities, CAPT Rutstein continues to serve as a family physician at East of the River
Community Health Center in Washington, D.C., as well as an occasional instructor of both Advanced Trauma Life Support
and Tropical Medicine/Public Health at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences. |
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