As a pediatrician-in-training at Boston Medical Center in 1997, Joshua Sharfstein stood out among the other aspiring doctors by making house calls in poor neighborhoods. What Sharfstein discovered on those in-home visits led him to co-write a report showing that deplorable housing conditions can severely harm the health of children.
The study, which Sharfstein undertook at age 28, grabbed national attention, garnered praise from the federal government's top housing official, and confirmed expectations set by an award that identified him as a potential public health leader while he was a Harvard Medical School student.
In the years since, the Mount Washington resident has followed a public health career trajectory that will place him in charge of the Baltimore's Health Department. At a City Hall ceremony this morning, Mayor Martin O'Malley will name Sharfstein, 36, as the city's new health commissioner. He replaces Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, who resigned this year to run for Congress.
FOR THE RECORD - A headline yesterday aboout the selection of a new Baltimore health commissioner misspelled the name of Dr. Joshua Sharfstein.
Sharfstein "comes with a different background [than Beilenson], but he comes well poised to do as good a job, if not better," said Dr. Alfred Sommer, former dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was chairman of a search committee comprising representatives of O'Malley and City Council President Sheila Dixon.
Sommer said Sharfstein topped the list of nearly a dozen candidates. "He's superbly educated," Sommer said. "And he is very much devoted to Baltimore."
Sharfstein's wife, Dr. Yngvild Olsen, is medical director of outpatient substance abuse treatment services at Johns Hopkins Hospital. His mother is a pediatrician and his father, Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein, is president of Sheppard Pratt Health System.
"Dinner conversations very often revolved around sticky clinical issues or health policy questions," the elder Sharfstein said.
Joshua Sharfstein will take the reins of the Health Department from acting Commissioner Francine J. Childs next month, overseeing an agency that operates with a $163.3 million budget funded mostly by federal grants. The department is charged with, among other things, managing 14 health centers, inspecting more than 10,000 food establishments and administering nearly 21,000 HIV tests a year.
"Dr. Sharfstein's wealth of expertise on a broad range of public health issues and sound understanding of public health policy will help us continue to address our public health challenges," O'Malley said in a statement.
