Physician to the President explained

Post:	Physician to the President
Insignia:	US-WhiteHouse-Logo.svg
Incumbent:	Kevin O'Connor
Incumbentsince:	January 25, 2021
Department:	Executive Branch of the U.S. Government Executive Office of the President
Appointer:	The President

The physician to the president is the formal and official title of the physician who the president of the United States chooses to be their personal physician. Often, the physician to the president also serves as the director of the White House Medical Unit, a unit of the White House Military Office responsible for the medical needs of the president of the United States, vice president, White House staff, and visitors.^[1] The physician to the president is also the chief White House physician.^[2]

History

Doctors who have treated the president of the United States have had a variety of titles.^[3] Presley Marion Rixey, a medical inspector in the United States Navy, was the first individual to serve in a full-time capacity as a physician to the president beginning in 1901. However, the title "White House Physician" was not used until created by an act of Congress in 1928.^[4] It has been unclear if this legal position of White House physician rests with the physician to the president or the director of the White House Medical Unit.

Organization and role

The White House physician has an office inside the White House. The location of their medical unit plays an important role in keeping the president of the United States healthy. They also oversee a staff that is typically composed of five military physicians, five physician assistants, five nurses, three paramedics, three administrators, and one IT manager. The physician to the president is metaphorically the "shadow of the president" because they (or one of the physicians assigned to the White House Medical Unit) are always close at hand whether the president is at the White House, overseas, on the campaign trail, or aboard presidential plane Air Force One; Daniel Ruge, for example, was nearby during the attempted assassination of Ronald Reagan in 1981, and supervised the president's immediate treatment.

The physician to the president protects the president's health. The physician to the president, together with the director of the White House Medical Unit, is also responsible for managing comprehensive medical care for the members of the president's immediate family, the vice president, and the vice president's family and providing the medical support to ensure the continuity of the presidency. The physician may also provide medical care and attention to the more than 1.5 million visitors who tour the White House each year, as well as to international dignitaries and other guests of the president.

The medical office of the White House doctor is a "mini urgent-care center" containing a physician's office, private examination rooms, basic medications and medical supplies, and a crash cart for emergency resuscitation. Air Force One is equipped with emergency medical equipment, an operating table, and operating room lights installed at the center of the presidential plane for emergency use by the White House doctor.

Ruge resigned after Reagan's first term and called his job "vastly overrated, boring and not medically challenging". Due to lack of space, Ruge could not attend most state dinners. He nonetheless had to be ready for emergencies and usually waited alone in his office wearing a tuxedo. However, Ruge stated that an advantage was that because of the position's prestige, "[a] president's physician can ask for anything, and he will get it. No doctor will refuse a request to consult". The White House physician can enter the Oval Office or Executive Residence at any time; Ruge sometimes invited experts visiting Washington to examine the president.

Selection of the physician

The White House physician is often selected personally by the president, and most White House doctors are active-duty military officers,^[5] partly because most civilians would find closing and later reopening their private practices difficult. Ruge was about to retire when Reagan chose him as his physician.

Colonel Kevin O'Connor, DO, USA (Ret.) is the incumbent White House physician.^[6]

White House physicians

Some of the individuals who have acted as physicians to the president:

• 1789: Samuel Bard, MD. Bard was the first physician known to have treated a president when he lanced a boil on George Washington's thigh.^[7]
• 1789 to 1797: James Craig. Craig was a family friend of George Washington's.^[5]
• 1895: Leonard Wood, MD, USA. Wood was not only the White House physician to President Grover Cleveland in 1895 but also the personal physician of President and Mrs. William McKinley.
• 1913 to 1921: RADM Cary Travers Grayson, MD, Pharm.D., USN.^[8]
• 1921 to 1923: Charles E. Sawyer, HMD^[9]
• 1923 to 1929: Major James Francis Coupal, MD, MS, US Army^[10]
• 1929 to 1933: Commander Joel Thompson Boone, MD, US Navy^{[11] [12] [13]}
• 1933 to 1945: VADM Ross T. McIntire, MD, US Navy^[14]
• 1945: Lieutenant Commander Howard G. Bruenn, MD, US Navy
• 1945 to 1953: Major General Wallace H. Graham, MD, US Army^[15]
• 1953 to 1961: Major General Howard McCrum Snyder, MD^[16]
• 1961 to 1963: Janet G. Travell, MD^{[17] [18]}
• 1963 to 1969: RADM George G. Burkley, MD, US Navy^{[19] [20]} (concurrent from 1963 to 1966 with Capt. James Young, MD, USN^{[21] [22]}
• 1969 to 1974: Major General Walter R. Tkach, MD, USAF^[23]
• 1974 to 1981: RADM William M. Lukash, MD, FACP, FACG, USN^[24]
• 1981 to 1985: Daniel Ruge, MD, Ph.D.^{[25] [26]}
• 1985 to 1986: T. Burton Smith, MD^{[27] [28]}
• 1986 to 1987: John E. Hutton, Jr., MD^[5]
• 1987 to 1993: Colonel Lawrence C. Mohr, Jr., MD, FACP, FCCP, US (concurrent from 1989 to 1993 with Burton J. Lee III)^{[5] [29] [30]}
• 1989 to 1993: Burton J. Lee III, MD (concurrent with Lawrence C. Mohr, Jr.)^{[25] [31]}
• 1993 to 2001: RDML Eleanor Mariano, MD, US Navy^{[5] [32]}
• 2002 to 2009: Brigadier General Richard J. Tubb, MD, USAF^{[1] [33]}
• 2009 to 2013: Captain Jeffrey Kuhlman, MD, USN^{[1] [34]}
• 2013 to 2018: Captain Ronny Jackson, MD, USN^[35]
• March 2018 to January 2021: CDR Sean Conley, DO, USN.
• From January 2021: Colonel Kevin O'Connor, DO, USA (Ret.)^[36]

Footnotes

Notes

References

^[37]

Bibliography

• Deppisch, Ludwig M. The White House Physician: A History From Washington to George W. Bush. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2007.
• Evans, Hugh E. The Hidden Campaign: FDR's Health and the 1944 Election. Armonk, NY: Sharpe, 2002.
• Ferrell, Robert H. . Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1998.
• Ferrell, Robert H. . Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1992.
• Joynt, Robert J. and Toole, James F. Presidential Disability: Papers and Discussions on Inability and Disability Among U.S. Presidents. Woodbridge, Suffolk, UK: University of Rochester Press, 2001.
• Levin, Phyllis Lee. Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
• McCullough, David. Truman. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003.
• Smith, Jean Edward. Eisenhower: In War and Peace. New York: Random House, 2012.
• Steely, Skipper. Pearl Harbor Countdown: Admiral James O. Richardson. Gretna, LA: Pelican Publishing, 2008.
• Ullman, Dana. The Homeopathic Revolution: Why Famous People and Cultural Heroes Choose Homeopathy. Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2007.

Notes and References

1. http://www.parade.com/health/2009/08/16-when-the-patient-is-the-president.html Mishori, Ranit. "When The Patient Is The President."
2. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/release-presidents-medical-exam "Release of the President's Medical Exam." Office of the Press Secretary. The White House. February 28, 2010.
3. Deppisch, p. 4.
4. Deppisch, pp. 4, 75.
5. http://www.cnn.com/2004/HEALTH/09/23/wh.doctors/ "White House Doctors: The President's Shadow."
6. Web site: Liptak . Kevin . January 25, 2021 . Biden replaces controversial White House physician . August 8, 2021 . CNN.
7. http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2009/03/23/prsa0323.htm Hedger, Brian. "White Coats in the White House: Former Presidential Physicians Reflect On Their Service."
8. Levin, p. 45; Ferrell, The Dying President, p. 8; Deppisch, p. 87.
9. Ferrell, Ill-Advised, pp. 22, 27. The acronym HMD stands for "Doctor of Homeopathic Medicine".
10. Deppisch, p. 84.
11. Ullman, p. 198.
12. Boone was a lieutenant commander when he began his service. He was promoted to Commander at the White House, and President Hoover promoted him to the temporary rank of Captain. Hoover tried to have Boone's rank made permanent but was unsuccessful. Boone did not receive any additional promotions until after he left the White House. See: Deppisch, p. 77.
13. Boone served as Assistant Physician to presidents Harding and Coolidgebeforeo becoming personal physical to Hoover. See: Steely, p. 136. He served one month under Roosevelt. See: Evans, p. 41.
14. McIntire was a lieutenant commander when his service in the White House began, and retired as a Vice Admiral. See: Deppisch, p. 90.
15. Graham began his service at the White House as a colonel. McCullough, p. 53.
16. Deppisch, p. 98; Smith, p. 676.
17. 152826 . 12638662 . 30 . The President's physician . 2003 . Bagg JE . Tex Heart Inst J . 1 . 1–2.

    "Janet G. Travell (#8.26)." A Register of Her White House Files, 1959–1964. John F. Kennedy Library. National Archives and Records Administration. No date. Accessed May 9, 2010.

18. "President's Physician: George Gregory Burkley." New York Times. July 20, 1963.
19. Gilbert, Robert E. "The Political Effects of Presidential Illness: The Case of Lyndon B. Johnson." Political Psychology. 16:4 (December 1995).
20. Altman, Lawrence K. "Johnson Skin Cancer Is Reported, But Widow and Physician Deny It." New York Times. June 26, 1977; Altman, Lawrence K. "Navy Confirms Johnson Had Surgery for Skin Cancer." New York Times. June 29, 1977.
21. Web site: White House Physician | Duke Medical Center Archives. archives.mc.duke.edu.
22. Web site: James Young, M.D..
23. "Ex-White House Physician Walter R. Tkach Dies." Washington Post. November 9, 1989; Web site: 'Major General Walter Robert Tkach.' Biographies. Information. United States Air Force. No date.. https://archive.today/20120730054244/http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7401. July 30, 2012. dead. mdy-all. Accessed May 9, 2010; "Walter Tkach, 72; Served as the Doctor To Three Presidents." Associated Press. November 9, 1989.
24. News: William Lukash, 66, Doctor Who Watched Over Presidents (Published 1998). Wolfgang. Saxon. The New York Times . February 7, 1998. NYTimes.com.
25. Book: Disability, The Working Group on Presidential. Presidential Disability: Papers, Discussions, and Recommendations on the Twenty-Fifth Amendment and Issues of Inability and Disability Among Presidents of the United States. October 7, 2001. University Rochester Press. 9781580460699. Google Books.
26. https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/politics/06ruge.html Altman, Lawrence K. "Daniel Ruge, 88, Dies."
27. http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1985/10485a.htm "Appointment of T. Burton Smith as Physician to the President." Appointments & Nominations, January 4, 1985. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. National Archives and Records Administration. No date
28. http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/1986/121086c.htm "Appointment of John E. Hutton, Jr., as Physician to the President." December 10, 1986. Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. National Archives and Records Administration. No date.
29. News: Thom . Krista . White House Doctor Cares for President . October 3, 2020 . . Texas A&M University Student Media . February 14, 2006 . https://archive.today/20130203203510/http://www.thebatt.com/2.8485/white-house-doctor-cares-for-president-1.1195724 . February 3, 2013 . unfit.
30. Web site: "Lawrence C. Mohr, JR., M.D., F.A.C.P., F.C.C.P." Commission Members. National Environmental Policy Commission. 2001.. May 9, 2010. September 1, 2006. https://web.archive.org/web/20060901223548/http://pico.library.musc.edu/bios/mohr.html. dead.
31. News: Doctor at the White House Is Dismissed (Published 1993). Lawrence K.. Altman. The New York Times . January 29, 1993. NYTimes.com.
32. "Her Patients Were Presidents." Filipino Reporter. April 16–22, 2010.
33. Web site: 'Brigadier General (Dr.) Richard J. Tubb.' Biographies. Information. United States Air Force. No date.. https://archive.today/20120718062225/http://www.af.mil/information/bios/bio.asp?bioID=7993. July 18, 2012. dead. mdy-all. Accessed May 9, 2010.
34. http://med.miami.edu/news/miller-school-hosts-capt.-jeffrey-kuhlman-physician-to-the-u.s.-president-f "Miller School Hosts Capt. Jeffrey Kuhlman, Physician to the U.S. President, for Surgery Grand Rounds." Press release. Miller School of Medicine. University of Miami. July 27, 2013.
35. News: George W. Bush Shows Off Levelland Hat During Trip to Africa. KCBD-TV. July 5, 2013. July 27, 2013.
36. Web site: Biden replaces controversial White House physician . January 25, 2021 . CNN . January 25, 2021 . Conley generated controversy in the fall when he admitted to offering rosy descriptions of Trump's condition because the White House wanted to project optimism..
37. Web site: Liptak . Kevin . January 25, 2021 . Biden replaces controversial White House physician . August 8, 2024 . CNN.