Johns Hopkins surgeon Marty Makary confirmed as FDA commissioner

Marty Makary, a surgical oncologist and health policy researcher who has spent more than two decades at Johns Hopkins, was confirmed Tuesday night by the U.S. Senate as the next commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a bipartisan vote.

Image caption: Martin Makary

The appointment positions Makary atop the federal agency charged with ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices; ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply and cosmetics; and regulating the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products to protect the public health. The FDA, which oversees approximately one-fifth of the U.S. economy, is part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

"I am pleased to congratulate Dr. Makary on his new role as FDA commissioner. We are fortunate to have one of our senior faculty members at the School of Medicine undertake this critical service to the nation," JHU President Ron Daniels said. "An accomplished clinician and widely published health policy researcher, Dr. Makary has had a storied career at Johns Hopkins that reflects the research and clinical acumen and openness to different ideas and approaches undergirded by academic freedom that are the hallmark of our great institution."

Makary has been a prominent voice on U.S. health care practices throughout his career, advocating for efforts to lower the cost of treatment and reduce unnecessary procedures and medical errors. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he questioned elements of the nation's response—he was an early advocate for universal masking and vaccines, but later questioned vaccine mandates as well as prolonged school closures, masks for toddlers, and vaccine boosters for healthy children.

Makary founded the Johns Hopkins Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research and co-developed a surgical safety checklist that is used in operating rooms around the world today. He was the first to perform novel surgical procedures, including his first-in-the-world series of laparoscopic pancreas islet transplant operations. He received emeritus status at the university's Advisory Board of the Medical Faculty upon his departure.

Makary's most recent research focused on the underlying causes of disease, vulnerable populations, and the appropriateness of care, but over the course of career he has also conducted research related to cancer, patient safety, frailty and physiologic reserve in older patients, adverse event monitoring, antimicrobial resistance, and Alzheimer's disease. His development of novel quality metrics in health care has had a meaningful impact on health safety and health outcomes.

A member of the prestigious National Academy of Medicine, Makary has published more than 300 peer-reviewed articles and is also the author of three New York Times bestselling books on health care, including Unaccountable (2013) and The Price We Pay: What Broke American Health Care—and How to Fix It (2019). His newest book, Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets it Wrong and What it Means for Our Health, was released in September.

"Dr. Makary's 22-year tenure at Hopkins has been marked by great collegiality, partnership, and clinical and research excellence, and his profound love and admiration for Johns Hopkins and of his colleagues shines through in any conversation, public or private, one has with him," Theodore DeWeese, dean of the medical faculty and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine, wrote in a message to the Hopkins Medicine community today.

"Please join us in thanking Dr. Makary for his years of service to our institution and wishing him well on bringing the excellence, rigor, and care that defines Johns Hopkins to his new role at the FDA."