America's most famous television surgeon, Sanjay Gupta, is poised to take his black bag and microphone to the White House as President-elect Barack Obama's choice for U.S. surgeon general.
A neurosurgeon who is also a correspondent for CNN and CBS, Gupta was chosen as much for his broadcasting skills as for his medical résumé, suggesting that the incoming administration values visible advisers who can drive a public message. He has also been offered a top post in the new White House Office of Health Reform, twin duties that could make him the most influential surgeon general in history.
A practicing physician and one of People magazine's "Sexiest Men Alive," Gupta met for more than two hours with Obama in Chicago on Nov. 25, according to two sources with knowledge of the talks. Gupta, 39, later spoke with several Obama advisers, including Thomas A. Daschle, who will run the new White House policy office and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The globetrotting doctor has told Obama aides he wants the job, which involves overseeing the 6,000-member Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service. When reached yesterday, Gupta did not deny that he plans to accept the offer but declined to comment.
Transition officials refused to speak on the record about his selection, but several Obama allies praised Gupta as the sort of highly visible, articulate physician who might restore the luster that the position of "the nation's doctor" had in the person of Reagan appointee C. Everett Koop and some of his predecessors.
A representative of the Commissioned Corps, however, said Gupta will face a "credibility gap" because he has never served in the uniformed Public Health Service.
"I am unaware of any public health experience or qualifications he has to be the leader of the nation's public health service," said Gerard M. Farrell, executive director of the service's Commissioned Officers Association. "This would be akin to appointing the Army chief of staff from the city council of Hoboken," N.J.
The selection of Gupta represents a "return to a communicator model," said Susan Blumenthal, who retired as an assistant surgeon general two years ago after 20 years in the Public Health Service.
If he is confirmed by the Senate, Gupta would provide the administration with a skilled television personality to help market what is planned to be a massive reorganization of the U.S. health system.
The Obama team already has initiated a public relations campaign aimed at mobilizing grass-roots support for eventual health reform legislation. Last week, Daschle appeared at town-hall-style meetings in Indiana and Washington to solicit public input. The sessions, captured on video and posted on the transition Web site, were among more than 8,500 local gatherings held over the holidays.
Gupta is "a great voice to get the public engaged in the discussion over health care reform," said Kenneth Thorpe, a former Clinton administration official who has become friendly with Gupta as a colleague at Emory University in Atlanta.
Gupta, the son of Indian parents, has long been drawn to policymaking. He was a White House fellow in the late 1990s, writing speeches and crafting policy for then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton. He is currently associate chief of neurosurgery at Grady Memorial Hospital, Atlanta's busy downtown hospital.
United States president-elect Barack Obama has chosen Dr. Sanjay Gupta, a medical correspondent from the American television station CNN, to be the next United States Surgeon General. Gupta, also a neurosurgeon, was reported to be chosen because of his background in broadcasting and skills in communication. He is currently the host of ''House Call'', a program on CNN, a columnist for ''Time Magazine'', a contributor to CBS News, and also a part time worker at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta. He will likely leave all of these positions to serve as US Surgeon General.

Dr. Joseph Heyman of the American Medical Association supported Gupta, stating "If chosen, Dr. Gupta's communication skills and medical knowledge could be a boon to the new administration's health system reform efforts." Conversely, Doctors Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz from the Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice stated that the next Surgeon General would need to "...demonstrate skills that are too often missing in medical news on TV: skepticism about the science and a careful analysis of both the benefits and harms of medical care."

According to reports by sources close to the discussions, Gupta met with Barack Obama on November 25 in Chicago to discuss the position. He later met with several advisors to the president-elect, including Thomas A. Daschle of the US Department of Health and Human Services. He was reported to tell Obama that he wanted the Surgeon General position. Gupta declined to comment about the situation yesterday, but did state that he plans to accept Obama's choice.