Leroy Edgar Burney
Encyclopedia
Leroy Edgar Burney was an American physician and public health official. He was appointed the eighth Surgeon General of the United States
from 1956 to 1961.
, a town founded by his great-grandfather. He began premedical coursework at Butler University
(1924-26) and completed both undergraduate and medical training at Indiana University
(S.B.
, 1928; M.D.
, 1930). An introduction to the Public Health Service
(PHS) came through a one-year intern
ship at the Chicago
Marine Hospital. Initiation into the world of public health
followed when Burney took advantage of a fellowship to study at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (M.S.
, 1931). Courtesy of the renowned epidemiologist
Dr. W. H. Frost and the Rockefeller Foundation
, Burney was allowed to extend his studies for six months of field work at the Joint Health Department of Charlottesville, Virginia
, immunizing preschool children against diphtheria
.
’s venereal disease control programs, receiving specialized training at the New York
Marine Hospital (1934) and assisting in the management of rapid treatment centers around the country. Burney helped establish the first PHS mobile venereal disease clinic
, in Brunswick, Georgia
(1937-39), bringing access to treatment for African American
s, whom Jim Crow segregation
excluded from the predominantly white locations of other facilities.
Burney spent most of World War II
stateside, where he served as Assistant Chief of PHS’s Division of State Relations (1943-44), except for a five-month detail to the Navy
, where he traveled to the Mediterranean on behalf of the War Shipping Administration
, to address infectious disease
problems affecting ports. After the war, Burney continued his work with state and county health departments, directing PHS’s New Orleans district office (1945) and then accepting a detail to be State Health Commissioner and Secretary of Indiana
's new State Board of Health (1945-54) and teach at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In 1954 Burney returned to PHS as an Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Chief of the Bureau of State Services, overseeing grants-in-aid to the states while being prepared for leadership by then-Surgeon General Leonard A. Scheele
.
Dwight D. Eisenhower
nominated Burney on a recess appointment
, and was sworn in as Surgeon General on August 8, 1956, and later confirmed by the Senate
in January 1957. Surgeon General Burney applied his administrative know-how to steer PHS successfully through institutional growing pains as the agency responded to new and, at times, conflicting demands from the public, professional and voluntary advocacy groups, the parent Department, and the Congress
. The key issues of the day were environmental health
and access to health services, the former driven by widely-shared alarm over deteriorating environmental conditions and fallout
from the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons
and the latter by expectations that national health insurance
would soon be realized. In many ways the Kerr-Mills Act of 1960, which authorized government financing of services for senior citizens without adequate means to pay for care, prefigured the Medicare
and Medicaid
programs that would transform national policy during the following decades.
In response, Burney mustered his leadership to gather facts, draft plans for modernizing PHS and take action. Under future Surgeon General William H. Stewart
, the Office of the Surgeon General’s Division of Public Health Methods staffed a number of investigatory and advisory bodies whose reports still inform policy decisionmaking, including the Secretary’s Consultants on Medical Research and Education (Bayne-Jones report, 1958); the Surgeon General’s Consultant Group on Medical Education (Bane report, 1959); the Surgeon General’s Report on Environmental Health Problems submitted to the House Appropriations Subcommittee (1959); and the Study Group on the Mission and Organization of the Public Health Service (Hundley report, 1960). In addition, during July 1957 Public Health Methods began implementing the National Health Survey Act of 1956, conducting the first periodic national surveys of chronic disease morbidity and health services: the triennial Health Interview Survey, and the mobile Health Examination Survey (which in 1971 became the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey).
The Hundley Committee report urged that PHS shed the institutional remnants of its early missions (the hospitals and quarantine
) and reorganize to better fulfill its post-1940 mandate to promote civilian public health. Unable to obtain formal authority from Congress but with permission from the Secretary of DHEW, Burney began reorienting PHS structure to reflect its new functions. The Bureau of State Services was divided into two parts, one devoted to issues related to services delivery, under the rubric of "community health
," and the other devoted to environmental health
. Environmental programs were consolidated and upgraded, with new Division-level units created for radiological health
(1957) and air pollution
(1960) and a new National Advisory Committee on Radiation. With the exception of the multidisciplinary National Institute of Mental Health
, institutional boundaries were redrawn to distinguish services-oriented programs at the Bureau of Medical Services from research at the National Institutes of Health
and from information gathering units such as the National Library of Medicine groundbreaking for Bethesda, Maryland
facility in June, 1959 and the National Center for Health Statistics
established in August 1960, comprising Public Health Method’s surveys group and PHS’s National Vital Statistics Division.
Surgeon General Burney also refashioned his position to emphasize his role as a spokesperson on behalf of public health. In 1957 and again in 1959, he was the first Federal official to publicly identify cigarette
smoke as a cause of lung cancer
, issuing statements that paved the way for his successor, Surgeon General Luther L. Terry
. Traditional public health functions remained no less important. During his tenure Burney played a leadership role in public health affairs both internationally chairing the U.S. delegation to the 1959 World Health Assembly and domestically serving as President of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers. In addition, he supported an effective response by the Communicable Disease Center
to the 1957 Asian influenza
pandemic
and gave ongoing, measured support to the development of the oral polio vaccine
developed by Albert Sabin
.
’s inauguration, Surgeon General Burney stepped down from his post to give the new Democratic administration the opportunity to nominate its own choice for Surgeon General. Reforms and ideas raised during Burney’s administration would become the foundations of health policy under Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
. After retiring from PHS, Burney served as Vice President for Health Sciences at Temple University
and on the Board of the Milbank Memorial Fund until his retirement in 1990. He died on July 31, 1998, in Park Ridge, Illinois
.
Surgeon General of the United States
The Surgeon General of the United States is the operational head of the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps and thus the leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the federal government...
from 1956 to 1961.
Early years
Burney was born in Burney, IndianaBurney, Indiana
Burney is an unincorporated town in Clay Township, Decatur County, Indiana....
, a town founded by his great-grandfather. He began premedical coursework at Butler University
Butler University
Butler University is a private university located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Founded in 1855 and named after founder Ovid Butler, the university offers 60 degree programs to 4,400 students through six colleges: business, communication, education, liberal Arts and sciences, pharmacy and health...
(1924-26) and completed both undergraduate and medical training at Indiana University
Indiana University Bloomington
Indiana University Bloomington is a public research university located in Bloomington, Indiana, in the United States. IU Bloomington is the flagship campus of the Indiana University system. Being the flagship campus, IU Bloomington is often referred to simply as IU or Indiana...
(S.B.
Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science is an undergraduate academic degree awarded for completed courses that generally last three to five years .-Australia:In Australia, the BSc is a 3 year degree, offered from 1st year on...
, 1928; M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
, 1930). An introduction to the Public Health Service
United States Public Health Service
The Public Health Service Act of 1944 structured the United States Public Health Service as the primary division of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare , which later became the United States Department of Health and Human Services. The PHS comprises all Agency Divisions of Health and...
(PHS) came through a one-year intern
Intern
Internship is a system of onthejob training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. They may also be as young as middle school or in...
ship at the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
Marine Hospital. Initiation into the world of public health
Public health
Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals" . It is concerned with threats to health based on population health...
followed when Burney took advantage of a fellowship to study at the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health (M.S.
Master of Science
A Master of Science is a postgraduate academic master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is typically studied for in the sciences including the social sciences.-Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay:...
, 1931). Courtesy of the renowned epidemiologist
Epidemiology
Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...
Dr. W. H. Frost and the Rockefeller Foundation
Rockefeller Foundation
The Rockefeller Foundation is a prominent philanthropic organization and private foundation based at 420 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The preeminent institution established by the six-generation Rockefeller family, it was founded by John D. Rockefeller , along with his son John D. Rockefeller, Jr...
, Burney was allowed to extend his studies for six months of field work at the Joint Health Department of Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
, immunizing preschool children against diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
.
Career
From Charlottesville, Burney applied for and was accepted into the PHS Regular Corps as an Assistant Surgeon (1932). His area of expertise would be public health administration at the state and local level, the front lines of public health. Like many of his generation at PHS, Burney came up through the ranks of then-Surgeon General Thomas Parran, Jr.Thomas Parran, Jr.
Thomas Parran, Jr. was an American physician and Public Health Service officer. He was appointed the sixth Surgeon General of the United States from 1936 to 1948.-Early years :...
’s venereal disease control programs, receiving specialized training at the New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
Marine Hospital (1934) and assisting in the management of rapid treatment centers around the country. Burney helped establish the first PHS mobile venereal disease clinic
Clinic
A clinic is a health care facility that is primarily devoted to the care of outpatients...
, in Brunswick, Georgia
Brunswick, Georgia
Brunswick is the major urban and economic center in southeastern Georgia in the United States. The municipality is located on a harbor near the Atlantic Ocean, approximately 30 miles north of Florida and 70 miles south of South Carolina. Brunswick is bordered on the east by the Atlantic...
(1937-39), bringing access to treatment for African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s, whom Jim Crow segregation
Racial segregation
Racial segregation is the separation of humans into racial groups in daily life. It may apply to activities such as eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, going to the movies, or in the rental or purchase of a home...
excluded from the predominantly white locations of other facilities.
Burney spent most of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
stateside, where he served as Assistant Chief of PHS’s Division of State Relations (1943-44), except for a five-month detail to the Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, where he traveled to the Mediterranean on behalf of the War Shipping Administration
War Shipping Administration
The War Shipping Administration was a World War II emergency war agency of the US Government, tasked to purchase and operate the civilian shipping tonnage the US needed for fighting the war....
, to address infectious disease
Infectious disease
Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...
problems affecting ports. After the war, Burney continued his work with state and county health departments, directing PHS’s New Orleans district office (1945) and then accepting a detail to be State Health Commissioner and Secretary of Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
's new State Board of Health (1945-54) and teach at the Indiana University School of Medicine. In 1954 Burney returned to PHS as an Assistant Surgeon General and Deputy Chief of the Bureau of State Services, overseeing grants-in-aid to the states while being prepared for leadership by then-Surgeon General Leonard A. Scheele
Leonard A. Scheele
Leonard Andrew Scheele was an American physician and public servant. He was appointed the seventh Surgeon General of the United States from 1948 to 1956.-Early years:...
.
Surgeon General
When Surgeon General Scheele stepped down in August 1956, PresidentPresident of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower was the 34th President of the United States, from 1953 until 1961. He was a five-star general in the United States Army...
nominated Burney on a recess appointment
Recess appointment
A recess appointment is the appointment, by the President of the United States, of a senior federal official while the U.S. Senate is in recess. The U.S. Constitution requires that the most senior federal officers must be confirmed by the Senate before assuming office, but while the Senate is in...
, and was sworn in as Surgeon General on August 8, 1956, and later confirmed by the Senate
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
in January 1957. Surgeon General Burney applied his administrative know-how to steer PHS successfully through institutional growing pains as the agency responded to new and, at times, conflicting demands from the public, professional and voluntary advocacy groups, the parent Department, and the Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
. The key issues of the day were environmental health
Environmental health
Environmental health is the branch of public health that is concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment that may affect human health...
and access to health services, the former driven by widely-shared alarm over deteriorating environmental conditions and fallout
Nuclear fallout
Fallout is the residual radioactive material propelled into the upper atmosphere following a nuclear blast, so called because it "falls out" of the sky after the explosion and shock wave have passed. It commonly refers to the radioactive dust and ash created when a nuclear weapon explodes...
from the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons
Nuclear testing
Nuclear weapons tests are experiments carried out to determine the effectiveness, yield and explosive capability of nuclear weapons. Throughout the twentieth century, most nations that have developed nuclear weapons have tested them...
and the latter by expectations that national health insurance
Universal health care
Universal health care is a term referring to organized health care systems built around the principle of universal coverage for all members of society, combining mechanisms for health financing and service provision.-History:...
would soon be realized. In many ways the Kerr-Mills Act of 1960, which authorized government financing of services for senior citizens without adequate means to pay for care, prefigured the Medicare
Medicare (United States)
Medicare is a social insurance program administered by the United States government, providing health insurance coverage to people who are aged 65 and over; to those who are under 65 and are permanently physically disabled or who have a congenital physical disability; or to those who meet other...
and Medicaid
Medicaid
Medicaid is the United States health program for certain people and families with low incomes and resources. It is a means-tested program that is jointly funded by the state and federal governments, and is managed by the states. People served by Medicaid are U.S. citizens or legal permanent...
programs that would transform national policy during the following decades.
In response, Burney mustered his leadership to gather facts, draft plans for modernizing PHS and take action. Under future Surgeon General William H. Stewart
William H. Stewart
William H. Stewart was an American pediatrician and epidemiologist. He was appointed tenth Surgeon General of the United States from 1965 to 1969.-Early years:Stewart was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
, the Office of the Surgeon General’s Division of Public Health Methods staffed a number of investigatory and advisory bodies whose reports still inform policy decisionmaking, including the Secretary’s Consultants on Medical Research and Education (Bayne-Jones report, 1958); the Surgeon General’s Consultant Group on Medical Education (Bane report, 1959); the Surgeon General’s Report on Environmental Health Problems submitted to the House Appropriations Subcommittee (1959); and the Study Group on the Mission and Organization of the Public Health Service (Hundley report, 1960). In addition, during July 1957 Public Health Methods began implementing the National Health Survey Act of 1956, conducting the first periodic national surveys of chronic disease morbidity and health services: the triennial Health Interview Survey, and the mobile Health Examination Survey (which in 1971 became the Health and Nutrition Examination Survey).
The Hundley Committee report urged that PHS shed the institutional remnants of its early missions (the hospitals and quarantine
Quarantine
Quarantine is compulsory isolation, typically to contain the spread of something considered dangerous, often but not always disease. The word comes from the Italian quarantena, meaning forty-day period....
) and reorganize to better fulfill its post-1940 mandate to promote civilian public health. Unable to obtain formal authority from Congress but with permission from the Secretary of DHEW, Burney began reorienting PHS structure to reflect its new functions. The Bureau of State Services was divided into two parts, one devoted to issues related to services delivery, under the rubric of "community health
Community health
Community health, a field of public health, is a discipline that concerns itself with the study and betterment of the health characteristics of biological communities. While the term community can be broadly defined, community health tends to focus on geographic areas rather than people with shared...
," and the other devoted to environmental health
Environmental health
Environmental health is the branch of public health that is concerned with all aspects of the natural and built environment that may affect human health...
. Environmental programs were consolidated and upgraded, with new Division-level units created for radiological health
Radiological weapon
A radiological weapon or radiological dispersion device is any weapon that is designed to spread radioactive material with the intent to kill, and cause disruption upon a city or nation....
(1957) and air pollution
Air pollution
Air pollution is the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials that cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or cause damage to the natural environment or built environment, into the atmosphere....
(1960) and a new National Advisory Committee on Radiation. With the exception of the multidisciplinary National Institute of Mental Health
National Institute of Mental Health
The National Institute of Mental Health is one of 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institutes of Health...
, institutional boundaries were redrawn to distinguish services-oriented programs at the Bureau of Medical Services from research at the National Institutes of Health
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health are an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services and are the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and health-related research. Its science and engineering counterpart is the National Science Foundation...
and from information gathering units such as the National Library of Medicine groundbreaking for Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda is a census designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, just northwest of Washington, D.C. It takes its name from a local church, the Bethesda Meeting House , which in turn took its name from Jerusalem's Pool of Bethesda...
facility in June, 1959 and the National Center for Health Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics is a division of the United States federal agency the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . As such, NCHS is under the United States Department of Health and Human Services...
established in August 1960, comprising Public Health Method’s surveys group and PHS’s National Vital Statistics Division.
Surgeon General Burney also refashioned his position to emphasize his role as a spokesperson on behalf of public health. In 1957 and again in 1959, he was the first Federal official to publicly identify cigarette
Cigarette
A cigarette is a small roll of finely cut tobacco leaves wrapped in a cylinder of thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end and allowed to smoulder; its smoke is inhaled from the other end, which is held in or to the mouth and in some cases a cigarette holder may be used as well...
smoke as a cause of lung cancer
Lung cancer
Lung cancer is a disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. If left untreated, this growth can spread beyond the lung in a process called metastasis into nearby tissue and, eventually, into other parts of the body. Most cancers that start in lung, known as primary...
, issuing statements that paved the way for his successor, Surgeon General Luther L. Terry
Luther Leonidas Terry
Luther Terry was an American physician and public health official. He was appointed the ninth Surgeon General of the United States from 1961 to 1965, and is best known for his warnings against the dangers of and the impact of tobacco use on health.-Early years:Luther Leonidas Terry was born in Red...
. Traditional public health functions remained no less important. During his tenure Burney played a leadership role in public health affairs both internationally chairing the U.S. delegation to the 1959 World Health Assembly and domestically serving as President of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officers. In addition, he supported an effective response by the Communicable Disease Center
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are a United States federal agency under the Department of Health and Human Services headquartered in Druid Hills, unincorporated DeKalb County, Georgia, in Greater Atlanta...
to the 1957 Asian influenza
Asian flu
Asian Flu may refer to:* The Asian Financial Crisis of 1997, or* Asian Flu, the H2N2 virus...
pandemic
Pandemic
A pandemic is an epidemic of infectious disease that is spreading through human populations across a large region; for instance multiple continents, or even worldwide. A widespread endemic disease that is stable in terms of how many people are getting sick from it is not a pandemic...
and gave ongoing, measured support to the development of the oral polio vaccine
Polio vaccine
Two polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis . The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus. An oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin...
developed by Albert Sabin
Albert Sabin
Albert Bruce Sabin was an American medical researcher best known for having developed an oral polio vaccine.-Life:...
.
Later years
On January 29, 1961, shortly after President John F. KennedyJohn F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
’s inauguration, Surgeon General Burney stepped down from his post to give the new Democratic administration the opportunity to nominate its own choice for Surgeon General. Reforms and ideas raised during Burney’s administration would become the foundations of health policy under Presidents Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon B. Johnson
Lyndon Baines Johnson , often referred to as LBJ, was the 36th President of the United States after his service as the 37th Vice President of the United States...
. After retiring from PHS, Burney served as Vice President for Health Sciences at Temple University
Temple University
Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...
and on the Board of the Milbank Memorial Fund until his retirement in 1990. He died on July 31, 1998, in Park Ridge, Illinois
Park Ridge, Illinois
-Climate:-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 37,775 people, 14,219 households, and 10,465 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,374.6 people per square mile . There were 14,646 housing units at an average density of 2,083.8 per square mile...
.