Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University-trained physician and economist, has reportedly emerged as the leading candidate for the role of director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under President-elect Donald Trump’s administration. The NIH, a nearly $50 billion agency, plays a crucial role in overseeing the nation’s biomedical research.
According to The Washington Post, Dr. Bhattacharya recently met with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has been appointed by Trump to head the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the top U.S. health agency that supervises the NIH and other health bodies.
During the meeting, Dr. Bhattacharya reportedly impressed Kennedy with his vision to reform the NIH. His proposals included shifting the agency’s focus toward funding more innovative research and reducing the influence of some long-serving career officials. The NIH is responsible for awarding research grants, overseeing clinical trials on its Maryland campus, and supporting efforts to develop drugs and therapeutics.
No official statement has been made by Trump’s transition team regarding Bhattacharya’s potential appointment. The final decision rests with the President-elect, who has been known to deviate from his advisers’ recommendations. Additionally, the transition team is said to be considering other candidates for leadership roles within the NIH and the National Institute on Aging (NIA).
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Jay Bhattacharya: Who is he?
Jayanta “Jay” Bhattacharya, born in Kolkata, India, in 1968, is a Professor of Health Policy at Stanford University and a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He earned both his MD and PhD in economics from Stanford University and also serves as the director of Stanford’s Center for Demography and Economics of Health and Aging.
According to Stanford’s official website, Dr. Bhattacharya’s research focuses on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations, particularly examining the role of government programs, biomedical innovation, and economics. His recent work has concentrated on the epidemiology of COVID-19 and the evaluation of policy responses to the pandemic.
Dr. Bhattacharya’s broader research interests include the implications of population aging for health outcomes and medical spending in developed nations, the measurement of physician performance and its connection to insurer payment systems, and the impact of biomedical innovation on public health. Over his career, he has published 135 articles in top peer-reviewed journals across various disciplines, including medicine, economics, health policy, epidemiology, statistics, law, and public health.
He gained significant attention as a critic of the federal government’s COVID-19 response. In October 2020, he co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter advocating for the rollback of coronavirus-related shutdowns while implementing “focused protections” for vulnerable groups, such as older adults. The proposal garnered support from Republican politicians and some Americans seeking a return to normalcy. However, it was criticized by the World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, as being unethical and infeasible.
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