The United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is a cabinet-level executive branch department of the U.S. federal government created to protect the health of all Americans and providing essential human services. Its motto is "Improving the health,safety,and well-being of America". Before the separate federal Department of Education was created in 1979,it was called the Department of Health,Education,and Welfare (HEW).
AmerisourceBergen Corporation is an American drug wholesale company that was formed by the merger of Bergen Brunswig and AmeriSource in 2001. They provide drug distribution and consulting related to medical business operations and patient services. They also distribute a line of brand name and generic pharmaceuticals,over-the-counter (OTC) health care products and home health care supplies and equipment to health care providers throughout the United States,including acute care hospitals and health systems,independent and chain retail pharmacies,mail-order facilities,physicians,clinics and other alternate site facilities,as well as nursing and assisted living centers. They also provide pharmaceuticals and pharmacy services to long-term care,workers' compensation and specialty drug patients.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) is an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services located in North Bethesda,Maryland. It is the primary federal agency for improving access to health care services for people who are uninsured,isolated or medically vulnerable.
Alex Michael Azar II is an American attorney,businessman,lobbyist,and former pharmaceutical executive who served as the United States Secretary of Health and Human Services from 2018 to 2021. Azar was nominated to his post by President Donald Trump on November 13,2017,and confirmed by the United States Senate on January 24,2018. He was also chairman of the White House Coronavirus Task Force from its inception in January 2020 to February 2020,when he was replaced by Vice President Mike Pence.
Sylvia Mary Burwell is an American government and non-profit executive who has been the 15th president of American University since June 1,2017. She is the first woman to serve as the university's president. She earlier served as the 22nd United States Secretary of Health and Human Services. President Barack Obama nominated Burwell on April 11,2014. Burwell's nomination was confirmed by the Senate on June 5,2014,by a vote of 78–17. She served as Secretary until the end of the Obama administration. Previously,she had been the Director of the White House Office of Management and Budget from 2013 to 2014.
Emergency medical responders are people who are specially trained to provide out-of-hospital care in medical emergencies. There are many different types of emergency medical responders,each with different levels of training,ranging from first aid and basic life support. Emergency medical responders have a very limited scope of practice and have the least amount of comprehensive education,clinical experience or clinical skills of emergency medical services (EMS) personnel. The EMR program is not intended to replace the roles of emergency medical technicians or paramedics and their wide range of specialties. Emergency medical responders typically assist in rural regions providing basic life support where pre-hospital health professionals are not available due to limited resources or infrastructure.
In the United States,a public health emergency declaration releases resources meant to handle an actual or potential public health crisis. Recent examples include:
Andrew M. Slavitt is an American businessman and healthcare advisor who served as the acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services from March 2015 to January 2017 and as a temporary Senior Advisor to the COVID-19 Response Coordinator in the Biden administration. A leader of the team that helped to repair the healthcare.gov website after its initial rollout,he was nominated by Barack Obama to run CMS in July 2015. In January 2021,Slavitt accepted a temporary role as Senior Pandemic Advisor to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 pandemic response team. He stepped down from that role in June 2021.
Brett P. Giroir is an American pediatrician and a former four-star admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Dr. Giroir currently serves as CEO and a member of the Board of Directors for Altesa BioSciences,Inc,a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company focusing on developing new treatments for respiratory viruses and global viral threats. He is also a co-founder and independent director for Revelar Biotherapeutics,and an independent director for OncoNano Medicine. His non-profit activities include Board service on the Global Virus Network and Remote Area Medical (RAM),and he remains active in global humanitarian initiatives in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He previously served as the 16th assistant secretary for health during the Trump administration from February 15,2018,to January 19,2021. He concurrently served as the secretary's principal public health and science adviser,the senior adviser for the Health Resources and Services Administration,the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as well as the senior adviser to the secretary for Opioid Policy. From 2020 to 2021,he served additionally as the director of the U.S. coronavirus diagnostic testing,and as the U.S. representative on the World Health Organization Executive Board. As COVID-19 testing czar,he was part of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
Jerome Michael Adams is an American anesthesiologist and a former vice admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps who served as the 20th surgeon general of the United States from September 5,2017 until January 20,2021. Prior to becoming Surgeon General,he served as the Indiana state health commissioner,from 2014 to 2017. On June 29,2017,President Donald Trump nominated Adams to become Surgeon General of the United States. Adams was confirmed by the United States Senate on August 3,2017.
In the United States,the opioid epidemic is an extensive ongoing overuse of opioid medications,both from medical prescriptions and from illegal sources. The epidemic began in the United States in the late 1990s,according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),when opioids were increasingly prescribed for pain management and resulted in a rise in overall opioid use throughout subsequent years. The great majority of Americans who use prescription opioids do not believe that they are misusing them.
Vanila M. Singh is an American physician and professor with involvement in United States health policy. Singh was a candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 2014. Early in her career she taught at UCLA Medical Center,and she is currently an associate professor of anesthesiology,perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University Medical Center. On June 12,2017,she was appointed the chief medical officer to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,a presidential appointment at the Senior Executive Service level. She served as Chair of the Inter-Agency Pain Management Task Force established by the CARA Act of 2016,which released its final report on acute and chronic pain management best practices on May 30,2019. Dr. Singh was also appointed as the Acting Regional Health Administrator in Region 9 in August 2018.
When authorized medical personnel prescribe two or more medications together for the same condition or disease to the same patient,it is known as co-prescribing. When clinicians prescribe the opioid overdose drug naloxone to patients in conjunction with the patient's opioid prescriptions,or to patients at risk for opioid overdose,it is called a naloxone co-prescription. Due,in part,to the opioid epidemic in the United States,there are currently both a state-level and nation-wide movement in the medical and public policy fields to encourage,and sometimes require,naloxone co-prescribing. The U.S. government has issued guidelines recommending co-prescribing naloxone along with opioids. Some co-prescribing,e.g.,the practice of co-prescribing benzodiazepines and certain opioid medications to patients,has been cause for concern due to the high risk of opioid overdose.
The White House Coronavirus Task Force was the United States Department of State task force during the Trump administration that "coordinate[d] and overs[aw] the administration's efforts to monitor,prevent,contain,and mitigate the spread" of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Also referred to as the President's Coronavirus Task Force,it was established on January 29,2020,with Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar as chair. On February 26,2020,U.S. vice president Mike Pence was named to chair the task force,and Deborah Birx was named the response coordinator.
Rachel Leland Levine is an American pediatrician and a four-star admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. She has served as the United States assistant secretary for health since March 26,2021.
Christi A. Grimm is an American government official who has served as the Inspector General in the United States Department of Health and Human Services since February 2022.
The federal government of the United States initially responded to the COVID-19 pandemic in the country with various declarations of emergency,some of which led to travel and entry restrictions,and the formation of the White House Coronavirus Task Force. As the pandemic progressed in the U.S. and throughout the rest of the world,the U.S. government began issuing recommendations regarding the response by state and local governments,as well as social distancing measures and workplace hazard controls. State governments play a primary role in adopting policies to address the pandemic. Following the closure of most businesses throughout a number of U.S. states,President Donald Trump announced the mobilization of the National Guard in the most affected areas.
Mandy Krauthamer Cohen is an American physician and public health official. From 2017 to 2021,she served as the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to serving as Health Secretary,Cohen was the chief operating officer and chief of staff at the Centers for Medicare &Medicaid Services during the Obama Administration. She also served as the Deputy Director of Comprehensive Women's Health Services at the United States Department of Veterans Affairs and is a founding member and former executive director of Doctors for America. Cohen was listed as one of the Top 25 Women Leaders in Healthcare by Modern Healthcare in 2019.
During his term as president of the United States (2017–2021),Donald Trump and his administration repeatedly politicized science by pressuring or overriding health and science agencies to change their reporting and recommendations so as to conform to his policies and public comments. This was particularly true with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States,but also included suppressing research on climate change and weakening or eliminating environmental regulations.
