Prudential Unit President to Head CDC

Prudential HealthCare, a business unit of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, announced today that Jeffrey P. Koplan, MD, MPH, currently president of the Prudential Center for Health Care Research, has been named the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), effective October 5. The CDC is the nation's disease prevention agency.

"The opportunity to lead the world's premier public health institution is unique and compelling," says Koplan. "My tenure at Prudential HealthCare has been extremely satisfying, particularly since the Prudential Center for Health Care Research has grown to become one of the preeminent health services research organizations in the country."

Charles Cutler, MD, will replace Koplan as president of the Prudential Center for Health Care Research. Cutler, currently Medical Director for the Center and vice president of Medical Services for Prudential HealthCare, oversees quality improvement, disease management, technology and clinical practices assessment, and the Institutes of Quality at the company.

From 1989 to 1994, Koplan served as assistant surgeon general and the first director of the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion at the CDC. Koplan started his 22-year Public Health Service and CDC career in the lab and field as an epidemic intelligence service officer, one of the CDC's well-known diseases detectives.

Koplan regularly serves as a consultant to the World Bank and the World Health Organization on public health programs. He has worked in Finland on cardiovascular programs, consulted on infectious and chronic disease issues in China for over 15 years and in Hungary on chronic disease prevention. In 1984 he led the U.S. team investigating the Bhopal chemical disaster in India. Koplan was also responsible for developing surveillance and epidemic investigation capability in ten Caribbean nations while based in Trinidad and Tobago.

Koplan has written or contributed to more than 140 scientific publications on epidemiology, economic analysis in prevention, health services research, health promotion and international health. He holds a BA in English from Yale University, an MD from Mount Sinai School of Medicine and a masters in public health from Harvard University's School of Public Health.