Health Commissioner

Dr. Huntington Williams, who as Baltimore's health commissioner for three decades led the campaigns to restrict use of lead paint, fluoridate the water supply and establish a school dental program, died yesterday in his sleep at his home on West University Parkway.He was 99.Services for Dr. Williams, who retired in 1962, will be held at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow at the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, Charles Street and Melrose Avenue.He suffered what was characterized as a mild stroke two weeks ago.Born in Baltimore, he was educated at the Calvert School, the Gilman School, and St. George's School in Newport, R.I., before attending Harvard College, where he graduated in 1915.

Peter Beilenson — doctor and public health visionary, Baltimore health commissioner, Howard County health officer, quick-study scholar and decoder of federal regulations — remains one of our most interesting men. A person whose leadership has certainly improved the lives of thousands of Marylanders over the last 20 years, from Baltimore heroin addicts to young families in Columbia, Beilenson is now trying to establish a nonprofit health insurance...

Dr. Maxie T. Collier, a former Baltimore City health commissioner and an early champion of needle-exchange programs to prevent the spread of the virus that causes AIDS among intravenous drug abusers, died early yesterday of a massive heart attack at his home in Northwest Baltimore. He was 49.His death came on the day of a surprise 50th wedding anniversary party he had planned for his parents, Pearlie May and James R. Collier, said Catherine Pugh, a family friend."I will remember Maxie as a brilliant psychiatrist and a caring and compassionate public health official," Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke said yesterday in a statement.

Baltimore's former health commissioner has come out with a way that just might get regular people to care about public policy -- he mixes in a heavy dose of "The Wire. " Dr. Peter Beilenson, who's now Howard County's chief health officer has written a book with journalist Patrick McGuire called "Tapping into The Wire: The Real Urban Crisis. " Each chapter is a different scene from the beloved HBO show, but with the storylines broadened to examine public policy questions. Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, the 232-pager comes out Sept.

Dr. Robert Ennis Farber, a retired family practice physician and former Baltimore health commissioner, died of lung disease Wednesday at his Roland Park home. He was 85. Born in Pierce, W.Va., Dr. Farber was raised in Sparrows Point, where his father practiced medicine. He was a 1936 graduate of Gilman School and earned a chemistry degree from Princeton University. After graduating from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in 1943, he joined the Navy and was a ship's doctor aboard the USS Karnes, an attack transport that delivered troops for landings in the Pacific island-hopping campaign of World War II. Dr. Farber crossed the Pacific several times and participated in engagements at Okinawa, Saipan and the Marshall Islands.

Dr. William J. Peeples, who served as Maryland's health commissioner in the late 1960s before taking up a practice in radiation oncology, died of congestive heart failure July 26 at a nursing home in Fort Myers, Fla. The former Timonium resident was 84. Born in Athens, Ga., he earned his medical degree from the University of Georgia. He served in World War II as an Army field surgeon on Okinawa and later remained in the reserves, attaining the rank of colonel. After the war, Dr. Peeples earned a master's degree in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

In a city where mayoral cabinet members are rarely recognized outside of City Hall, Baltimore Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson finds himself quoted on the front pages of national newspapers, pursued by television networks.Not bad for a guy who's been in office just over a month.Dr. Beilenson didn't think it was big news last week when The Sun reported that he's organized a consortium of Baltimore doctors, hospitals and foundations to promote Norplant, the five-year contraceptive, among teen-agers.

Flu season will soon peak, and Baltimore's health commissioner is urging sick people to stay home instead of flooding into emergency rooms. Many of the city's emergency departments are on "yellow alert," meaning they will soon be full. The remaining space should be reserved for the extremely ill, children and the elderly, said Dr. Peter Beilenson, the health commissioner. "There is nothing that can be done for the flu in the emergency room," Beilenson said. "If you are youngish and generally healthy, call your doctor first and then take care of it at home so you don't spread it in emergency room waiting rooms."

Dr. Peter L. Beilenson, Baltimore's health commissioner, took himself out of the running yesterday for the post of District of Columbia health director. Beilenson, 39, had been recruited for the job and was one of two finalists. He said he lost interest because the process had dragged on for 3 1/2 months."It was putting my family in limbo and causing some disruption in the city health department," Beilenson said. "I just decided that with the chaos in D.C. right now and other factors, I should stay in Baltimore."

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.

Baltimore City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot unveiled an ambitious initiative this week aimed at improving the overall health of Baltimore citizens by 2015. It sets practical goals for reducing the most serious health risks and acknowledges that achieving them will take the combined efforts of the city's hospitals, schools, social services agencies, foundations and private businesses. If it works, it will be a major achievement for Dr. Barbot, who arrived in Baltimore a year ago. But the plan is maddeningly short on details about how such a complex collaboration would actually work and who would direct the effort.

The Baltimore City Council showed wisdom when it voted recently to restore funding for health centers in the city's public schools. Few investments are more beneficial in terms of preventing illness and making schools more conducive to learning. Fully funding the health centers is also an excellent way to welcome Baltimore's new health commissioner, who established her reputation running the health department for New York's 1.1 million-student school system. Funding for the city's 13 school health centers will come in part from additional revenue raised from new taxes.

Dr. John Burling DeHoff, a Baltimore internist who later served as the city's health commissioner for nearly a decade, died Monday of heart failure at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville. He was 96. Born in Baltimore into a medical family, Dr. DeHoff's father, grandfather and great uncle, were physicians. He was raised in Charles Village and attended the Marston's University School for Boys and was a 1931 graduate of Polytechnic Institute. He earned a bachelor's degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1935 and his medical degree, also from Hopkins, in 1939.

The Baltimore City Council is set to hold hearings today on three pieces of legislation that would further restrict smoking in the city, causing some in the council to predict some heated debates in the coming months. Council members will hear the pros and cons of a proposed bill to ban the sale of single cigars, one that prohibits flavored cigar and cigarette wrappers and legislation to ban smoking near hospitals. "Generally, anything we do is focused on reducing cardiovascular disease," said Interim Health Commissioner Olivia Farrow, whose department supports all three measures.

When he took over as Baltimore health commissioner, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein says, he was unsure whether he would last three days. Recalling that beginning in a letter to friends and colleagues this month, he described the public health challenges facing the city as "awesome" and named a few: young mothers unable to get needed support before, during and after pregnancy; thousands of residents who can't access drug treatment; tens of thousands shut out...

Baltimore has recorded the lowest rate of tuberculosis since it began keeping track of infection rates nearly two centuries ago, city officials said Tuesday. Last year, the city Health Department reported 32 cases of the disease, for a rate of 5 per 100,000 people. That's down from 47 cases in 2007, a rate of 7.4 per 100,000 people. "Thanks to an aggressive tuberculosis control program and effective engagement of community health care workers, the TB rates have steadily declined," Mayor Sheila Dixon said at a news conference at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, the site of a tuberculosis hospital in the late 1800s, when "consumption" was a top killer.

When he took over as Baltimore health commissioner, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein says, he was unsure whether he would last three days. Recalling that beginning in a letter to friends and colleagues this month, he described the public health challenges facing the city as "awesome" and named a few: young mothers unable to get needed support before, during and after pregnancy; thousands of residents who can't access drug treatment; tens of thousands shut out...

Stung by the type of national attention no city wants, Baltimore's health commissioner branded as unfair a Harvard study that found the city had some of the worst life expectancies in a comparison of 2,077 locales across the country.The study, by Dr. Christopher Murray of the Harvard University School of Public Health, found that Baltimore had the third-shortest life expectancy for men and the second-shortest for women. Life expectancy for men was 63.04 years; for women, it was 73.27 years.

The city will launch a national search to replace Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, the health commissioner tapped by President Barack Obama yesterday to serve as the No. 2 official at the nation's principal food and drug watchdog. "President Obama chose an experienced advocate with a proven background in health policy," Mayor Sheila Dixon said after Obama announced Sharfstein's appointment as deputy commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration. "The people of the United States are fortunate to have Dr. Sharfstein looking out for their best interests."

Baltimore's health commissioner, Dr. Joshua M. Sharfstein, is headed to Washington to help reform the troubled Food and Drug Administration. That's a major plus for President Barack Obama and a great loss to Mayor Sheila Dixon, who found in Dr. Sharfstein a public health official as attuned to confronting the violence on the city's streets as fighting for the removal of lead-painted jewelry that could potentially sicken its children. Dr. Sharfstein, who led the Obama administration's transition team for the FDA, will serve as chief deputy to Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, a former New York City health commissioner who would lead the agency.