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Dr. Vivek Murthy            

21st & 19th Surgeon General of the United States

Dr. Vivek H. Murthy is the 21st Surgeon General of the United States, having previously served as the 19th Surgeon General under President Obama. In this capacity his mission is to help lay the foundation for a healthier country, relying on the best scientific information available to provide clear, consistent, and equitable guidance and resources for the public. He is the first Surgeon General of Indian descent.

Additionally, Dr. Murthy is the Vice Admiral of the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, commanding a uniformed service of over 6,000 dedicated public health officers serving the most underserved and vulnerable populations.

Throughout his career, Dr. Murthy has led the way in medical education, social action, and healthcare dialogue. During his previous tenure as Surgeon General, he led efforts to address the country's opioid crisis, and called for the recognition of addiction as a chronic disease, among other initiatives. A physician and entrepreneur, Dr. Murthy also co-founded multiple health-related organizations.

His book, "Together: The Healing Power of Human Connection in a Sometimes Lonely World," was a New York Times bestseller.

Dr. Murthy received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard, and his M.D. and M.B.A. degrees from Yale. He completed his internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and later joined Harvard Medical School as faculty in internal medicine.

Speech Topics

Opioids/Addiction

The opioid epidemic has swept the nation with implications for all sectors, including businesses. Addiction is driving health care costs, absenteeism, and productivity losses, and it is contributing to workforce shortages as the number of deaths related to opioids, alcohol, and other drugs continue to rise. How did we get to this point? What are our most promising strategies for turning the tide on addiction? And what can organizations do to protect themselves, their employees, and their communities?

Technology and Medicine

The interface of tech and medicine has produced exhilarating advances in diagnostics and therapeutics. Further advances, particularly with artificial intelligence have led physicians to wonder what role they will play in health care in the future. Will innovation make physicians unnecessary? I don’t believe so, but I do think our role will change significantly. What will the evolving role of physicians look like in the future and how can we prepare the next generation of physician leaders for this new world?

Role of Physicians and Nurses in 21 st century

Most clinicians were trained to care for the sick and to cure illness. But for centuries, our mission in medicine has been broader: to create health. If our goal is to create health, then we must be as good at prevention as we are at treatment. How can we do this as individuals and as a profession? What does it mean to train a new generation of doctors and nurses to create health in their communities? It will require new skills, new collaborations, and a fundamental reappraisal of how clinicians are using their time.

Making Prevention Work

Driven by skyrocketing health care costs, rapidly expanding burden of disease, and changing payment models, health care systems are under increasing pressure to do better when it comes to preventing illness. What do health systems and communities need to do to enhance our ability to prevent diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and the other top drivers of mortality and health care costs? How can health systems partner with communities on this mission?

Physician and Nurse Burnout

More than 50% of physicians are experiencing at least one symptom of burnout and the numbers have worsened over the last several years. Physicians have one of the highest suicide rates of any profession. Rising physician burnout threatens to drain the health care workforce exactly when reports have sounded the alarm on critical shortages of clinicians around the country. What is driving burnout in the medical profession and whose responsibility is it to address this? What steps need to be taken to address the systemic and cultural factors that contribute to burnout?

Loneliness and Chronic Stress in schools

Young people are more connected than ever with social media. But does that mean that they are not lonely? A growing body of data tells us that loneliness and chronic stress are bigger problems for our kids than we thought. And while kids are resilient, loneliness and chronic stress can have a deleterious impact on a child’s health and their performance in school. What are the factors that are leading young people to experience loneliness and chronic stress at such high levels? Is all stress bad or are there circumstances where stress can help children grow and develop? Most importantly, what steps do parents, schools, and communities need to take to protect the next generation?

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Emotional Well-Being in Schools

There has been widespread coverage of the health challenges facing young people from bullying and violence to depression and alcohol and drug use. What if there was a common factor that tied these problems together which, if addressed, could improve the health, safety, and performance of students across the board? It turns out the common denominator is emotional well-being. Science has a great deal to say about how we can cultivate emotional well-being in our children using relatively simple and inexpensive tools. And a growing number of communities are using these tools to help their students. The evidence shows that such approaches can lower rates of drug use, violence, teen pregnancy, and suspensions.

Emotional Well-Being – the unexpected key to a healthier, stronger America

  • Loneliness/Social connection and its role in the workforce: How does loneliness impact the workplace? Data and science show that loneliness is on the rise and it is more common than we thought. Loneliness has a negative impact on employee health, engagement, productivity, and creativity. How can we reduce loneliness among employees and simultaneously strengthen our workforce and our organizations?

  • Chronic stress: We all experience stress, but how much is too much? And what is the difference between helpful and harmful stress? Chronic stress has become a silent epidemic in the United States and around the world, taking a toll on our health, our employees’ productivity, and our childrens’ performance in school. There is a growing body of science that tells us how stress affects our body and our mind. Science is also helping us understand how to reduce chronic stress and cultivate emotional well-being. The question is: how do we translate this knowledge to action so we can help employees, students, and community members?

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News

Loneliness is bad for your health, says timely book by Vivek Murthy
As the “nation's doctor,” Murthy expected to use his platform to address broad issues like the opioid epidemic, obesity, mental health and vaccine-preventable ...
Why Loneliness Is a Health Issue | Hidden Brain : NPR
Vivek Murthy was a newly-minted doctor when he realized that his thorough medical school education had fallen short. His training hadn't prepared him for one ...
Surgeon General Vivek Murthy: Addiction Is A Chronic Brain ...
More than 50 years later, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy hopes he can do something similar for addiction. Murthy's new report on alcohol, drugs and health  ...
Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy Sends Letter to All Doctors on ...
United States surgeon general, Dr. Vivek Murthy, has sent a letter to every doctor in the United States asking them to help solve the problem of opioid addiction.
Dr. Manny: Surgeon General Murthy leaves legacy of too little, too late
Two years ago, I wasted no time in saying that confirming Dr. Vivek Murthy to serve as U.S. surgeon general would be a mistake. I believed at the time that his  ...
The U.S. Has A Surgeon General, For The First Time In 17 Months ...
A job that's been open in President Obama's administration since July of 2013 was finally filled Monday, as the Senate voted to confirm Vivek Murthy as ...
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Meet Vivek Murthy: The Controversial Surgeon General - ABC News
At 37 years old, Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy has made history today as the youngest appointed US Surgeon General and the first of Indian descent. The Senate ...
The Nation's Doctor: Dr. Vivek Murthy Is Confirmed as Surgeon ...
Here's a quick rundown of what you need to know about our next Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy.
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