CDC director urges graduates to make wise choices
by Kim Miller
Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, might be the 12th most powerful woman in the world, according to Forbes magazine, but she doesn’t let the title go to her head.
“I keep a little 3-by-5 card taped to my computer screen at the CDC because there’s something written on it that I need to remind myself of every morning, especially when times are kind of difficult,” said Dr. Gerberding, who spoke at the Medical College of Georgia’s 177th commencement ceremony May 12. “It says, ‘Leadership is a privilege’ and I have found over and over again in my days of service at CDC and other roles that I’ve had in my life that leadership really is a privilege.”
Dr. Gerberding was the guest speaker for the event, in which 665 students received diplomas. Her advice for graduates was inspired by a recent meeting with the spiritual Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama.
“He is a very simple man who leads a very simple life, but he often has very profound words of wisdom,” she said. “He said something that has really haunted me since I heard it. He said, ‘Judge your success by what you gave up in order to achieve it.’ I really thought about that because success is wonderful, but it always does have some price.”
Dr. Gerberding congratulated the graduates on their extraordinary success, reminding them of the sacrifices they made to achieve their academic degrees.
“You had to make choices and gave up some options that might have taken your life on a different pathway,” she said. “You certainly had to give up some time with your family and your friends and your loved ones and perhaps some leisure activities and a few holidays and a few good nights of sleep along the way. These are reasonable things to give up for a period of time because it’s worth it to be able to do what you’re doing today.”
Dr. Gerberding reminded the graduates that some prices are too high.
“As you go forward in your careers, there will be many opportunities for you to be tempted to put your professional success or your patients or your work ahead of things that are far more valuable than even those,” she said. “It will never be worth it to sacrifice your personal health, your exercise and your nutrition. It will never be worth it to sacrifice your mental health and it will never be worth it to sacrifice your social health, your relationships with the people who care for you and nurture you and help you with your continued success.”
The Dalai Lama’s words also apply in a more global sense to help people think more futuristically about the health care system, she said.
“Certainly, we have a very successful health care system,” Dr. Gerberding remarked. “We can do extraordinary things. We can transplant almost any body part. We can convert a disease like HIV infection, which at one time was almost always a death sentence, into a disease that people around the world are being able to live with for longer and longer periods of time. We have vaccines that have absolutely made an extraordinary impact on child and now adult health around the world and we have drugs that can solve all kinds of disease problems.”
Although the successes are extraordinary, they are not enough. “I think what we really want is health, and I’m not so sure that we’ve been so successful at achieving health for our society or at least equally for all members of our society,” she said. “We’re living in a culture that puts far greater value on treating the consequences of disease than protecting health in the first place. I think to truly explain success in the health system, we have to change the paradigm and put far greater emphasis on health protection.”
Of the $1.4 trillion the government spends on health care each year, 95 percent goes toward the last year of life and half of that toward the last four weeks, she said. “So we pay a lot of money for disease care but not very much to protect health and help people stay healthy in the first place.”
Dr. Gerberding suggested that if Americans want a new paradigm, they must consider their goals. “I don’t think we need a better health care delivery system and I don’t think we need a better public health system – I think we need a better health-protection system,” she said.
“We need a system that really does support people with decisions and the information and the tools and the culture and the concepts in which they can choose health,” Dr. Gerberding said. “People need communities with sidewalks and access to parks and recreation. Children need physical education and healthy choices in the vending machine and cafeteria at school.”
Despite the problems in today’s health system, she remains optimistic about the future and offered graduates advice on how to help.
“First of all, you can put health protection in action for yourself and your family,” Dr. Gerberding said. “You can emphasize health protection and prevention for your patients, for your clients. You can definitely serve as advocates at the community level.”
See more commencement photos at: Graduation sights