Profile BY JOEY BERLIN
Don’t curb your enthusiasm
HEALTH COMMISSIONER SAYS FERVOR OF MEDICAL COMMUNITY IMPORTANT IN TACKLING PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUES
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John Hellerstedt, MD, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, says the health and human services system is in a state of transition.
J
ohn Hellerstedt, MD, had barely warmed his seat at the Texas Department
of State Health Services (DSHS) when a major public health chal- lenge arose. On Feb. 2, just one month after
Dr. Hellerstedt assumed the role of DSHS commissioner, Texas an- nounced the state’s first case of Zika virus, a Dallas resident who had sexual contact with a person who had traveled to an area with Zika transmission. Since then, with the number of travel-associ- ated cases increasing in Texas, Dr. Hellerstedt has committed to mas- tering the curriculum of what he calls “Zika University,” embarking on a crash course in the mosquito- borne disease. He’s had to do so while familiarizing himself with everything running a state public health agency entails. Dr. Hellerstedt, a pediatrician,
PHOTO BY JIM LINCOLN May 2016 TEXAS MEDICINE 57
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