Tom Frieden: Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

• Position: FOR THE RECORD - Interview

Dr. Tom Frieden, MD, MPH, is the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. He served as commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene from 2002-2009 where he directed a successful program to control tuberculosis. Frieden graduated from Oberlin College, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. Frieden has focused his work on controlling health threats from infectious diseases, responding to emergencies, and battling the leading causes of suffering and death in our nation and around the world.

STATE LEGISLATURES: What are the biggest health concerns facing Americans today?

DR. FRIEDEN: We have both infectious and non-infectious problems. Our infectious disease problems reflect a perfect storm of vulnerability. We have resistant infections. New organisms. Globalization of travel and trade and medications. And we have the intentional creation of medicines. To deal with those infectious diseases we need to find them faster, stop them sooner and figure out how to prevent them better. And we do that by working with state and local governments and internationally to find problems and stop them. On the other side are the noncommunicable diseases: heart disease, stroke, diabetes. These are killing the most people today, and a lot are preventable. What we need to do is identify those things that work and make sure we do them--like hard-hitting ads to encourage smokers to quit. Like improving the rates of control of high blood pressure. Like ensuring that patients who are at risk for diabetes get the national diabetes prevention program so they don't progress to having diabetes. So, focusing on what works, identifying the problems, and then running programs with state and local governments that improve the outcome.

SL: In which areas of public health has the CDC been most effective and why?

FRIEDEN: We've seen tremendous progress in the area of immunization, where we've seen a drastic reduction in disease after disease. Immunization is one of the great success stories of the past century that we need to preserve and extend as new vaccines become available. People sometimes forget that these diseases can be deadly. More recently, we've seen terrific progress with our tips from former smokers' campaign. Real Americans talk about the disability they have...