Marty Makary

Dr. Marty Makary is a New York Times bestselling author, surgeon, and health care expert who served as the 27th U.S. Commissioner of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, confirmed with a bipartisan vote of the U.S. Senate. At the FDA, Dr. Makary led historic reforms including accelerating drug approvals, reducing animal testing, creating a new food pyramid, removing artificial food dyes, and a school lunch program to transition to healthier foods. He was also the first head of a government agency to adopt AI agency-wide. Prior to serving in government, Dr. Makary was a professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins Business School.

At Johns Hopkins, Dr. Makary was the Chief of Islet Transplant Surgery, pioneered new surgical procedures, and founded the Johns Hopkins Center for Surgical Trials and Outcomes Research. For his achievements, Marty received the Nobility in Science Award from the National Pancreas Foundation and was named the Mark Ravitch endowed chair of gastrointestinal surgery at Johns Hopkins. He has been a visiting professor at over 25 medical schools and served in leadership at the World Health Organization. He has published over 350 scientific peer-review articles, and, in 2019, was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

Dr. Makary is the recipient of the 2020 Business Book of the Year Award for his book, "The Price We Pay" about health care costs, and his latest book, "Blind Spots"—a #1 bestseller— explores nutrition science, the microbiome, hormone replacement, and new health trends.

Dr. Makary has led national policy efforts to make health care more affordable, more holistic, and more coordinated, especially for vulnerable populations. His research has focused on the evaluation of new technologies, the appropriateness of medical care, and the business of medicine. He was co-founder of Global Appropriateness Measures, a national effort to reduce unnecessary surgery and medication prescribing. He also served as Chief Medical Officer of H-E-B, with a focus on healthy food and disease prevention. His current work focuses on game-changing interventions in health care and new models of care that reduce downstream medical utilization and lower health care costs.