Vivek Murthy

Vivek Hallegere Murthy (born July 10, 1977) is an American physician and a vice admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who has served as the 19th and 21st surgeon general of the United States under Presidents Obama, Trump, and Biden.

Murthy is the first surgeon general of Indian descent, and, during his first term as surgeon general, he was the youngest active duty flag officer in federal uniformed service.

In 1978, the family crossed the Atlantic to Newfoundland, where his father worked as a district medical officer.

When he was three years old, the family relocated to Miami, and his parents established their medical practice.

Murthy was raised and completed his early education in Miami, graduating as valedictorian from Miami Palmetto Senior High School in 1994.

While a Harvard freshman in 1995, Murthy co-founded VISIONS Worldwide, which he led for eight years.

The nonprofit organization focused on HIV/AIDS education in the U.S. and India.

He also co-founded Harvard's bhajan club.

He then attended college at Harvard University and graduated magna cum laude in 1997 with a bachelor of arts in biochemical sciences.

In 1997, he co-founded the Swasthya Community Health Partnership to train women as community health workers and educators in rural India.

Murthy completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

As an attending physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Murthy cared for thousands of patients while assisting in the education of hundreds of undergraduates, medical students, and residents.

In 2003, Murthy earned an MD from Yale School of Medicine and an MBA from Yale School of Management, where he received The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans.

During his time at Yale, Murthy helped start "The Healer's Art" – a four-week long elective in which medical students discuss critical topics such as what it means to serve as a healer, how to cope with losing a patient, and how to prevent physician burnout.

In 2008, Murthy founded and served as president of Doctors for America, a group of more than 15,000 physicians and medical students supporting high-quality affordable care for all.

He founded the company as Epernicus in 2008, originally, to be a collaborative networking web platform for scientists to boost research productivity.

In 2011, Murthy was appointed by Barack Obama to serve on the Presidential Advisory Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health within the Department of Health and Human Services.

The group advises the National Prevention Council on developing strategies and partnerships to advance the nation's health through prevention.

In 2012, Murthy worked as co-chair of Obama's healthcare advisory committee during his re-election campaign.

Murthy is also the co-founder and chairman of TrialNetworks, a cloud-based Clinical Trial Optimization System for pharmaceutical and biotechnology trials that improves the quality and efficiency of clinical trials to bring new drugs to market faster and more safely.

In November 2013, Murthy was nominated by President Obama for the post of United States surgeon general.

His nomination met resistance in the Senate by some Democrats, Republicans, and the National Rifle Association regarding previous comments Murthy made declaring gun violence as a threat to public health.

Murthy's nomination received broad support from more than 100 medical and public health organizations in the U.S. He received the endorsements of two former surgeons general: David Satcher and Regina Benjamin.

Another former surgeon general, Richard Carmona opposed the appointment based on Murthy's age.

On December 15, 2014, Murthy's appointment as surgeon general was approved in a 51–43 Senate vote.

From the beginning of his tenure, Murthy spoke about the importance of creating a culture of prevention in America, one that is grounded in physical activity, nutrition, and emotional well-being.

As part of this effort, he issued ''Step It Up!

The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities.'' For the first anniversary of the Call to Action, he led a two-week public-private partnership with Fitbit called the Step it Up Challenge that engaged more than 600,000 people to increase their physical activity with an industry record-setting 60 billion steps.

He also partnered with Elmo and Top Chef to inform the country about vaccines and healthy eating, respectively.

Murthy's 2016 surgeon general report on e-cigarette use among youths emphasized the vulnerability of young people to the products and recommended that e-cigarettes be incorporated into existing smoke-free policies to prevent youth from accessing e-cigarettes.

The report drew heated response from proponents of e-cigarettes, including R Street and other public policy groups.

Murthy also led the United States through several major health crises – including the Ebola and Zika viruses, the Flint Michigan water crisis, and the currently ongoing opioid epidemic.

Murthy released the first ever Surgeon General's report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health – which revealed that approximately 21 million Americans suffer from some form of substance abuse disorder.

Furthermore, in 2016, Murthy issued a historic letter to 2.3 million fellow healthcare professionals, requesting a pledge to reform the prescription of opiate drugs and the perception of those struggling with addiction.

Murthy co-chaired President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 Advisory Board from November 2020 to January 2021, alongside former Food and Drug Administration commissioner David A. Kessler and Yale public health professor Marcella Nunez-Smith.

On December 7, Biden announced Murthy would return to the role of U.S. surgeon general.

The United States Senate confirmed Murthy to the role on March 23, 2021, by a vote of 57–43.

In October 2022, Biden nominated Murthy to be the U.S. representative on the World Health Organization's executive board.

Murthy was born in Huddersfield, Yorkshire, to immigrants from Karnataka, India.

He is the grandson of the late H. C. Narayana Murthy, the former director of Mysore Sugar Company, and son of Florida-based H. N. Lakshminarasimha Murthy and Maithreya Murthy.