Georges C. Benjamin.

Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, executive director of the American Public Health Association, is chairing a new committee on quarantine stations for the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. The committee will oversee a study to assess quarantine functions and structure along the U.S. border to protect against the spread of infectious diseases and other health emergencies. Based on the study, the committee will prepare a consensus report that provides the federal government with recommendations to strengthen, improve and modernize public health response and disease surveillance at U.S. ports of entry. An interim letter report will be released this month and a final report will be released by May 31, 2005. The study, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), began in August 2004. Benjamin, a longtime columnist for The Physician Executive, has been executive director of APHA since December 2002. Before joining APHA, Benjamin was secretary of the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where he played a key role in developing the state's bioterrorism plan. From 1995 to 1999, he served as Maryland's deputy secretary for public health services. Benjamin has also worked extensively in the field of emergency medicine.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]