title: Ten Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me When I Became a Health Officer.
abstract: Public health, like politics, is the art of the possible. To maximize effectiveness, public health officers in any jurisdiction should (1) get good data and ensure timely and effective dissemination; (2) prioritize and tackle more difficult initiatives first; (3) find, fight, and win winnable battles in areas where progress is possible but not ensured without focused, strategic effort; (4) support and hire great people and protect them so they can do their jobs; (5) address communicable diseases and environmental health effectively; (6) do not cede the clinical realm-public health programs depend on clinical care and on effective coordination between health care and public health; (7) learn and manage the budget cycle; (8) manage the context; (9) never surprise their boss; and (10) follow core principles.
authors.affiliation: Thomas R. Frieden is with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA.
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Frieden
mesh_terms: D002017:Budgets / Q000458:organization & administration; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology; D004782:Environmental Health / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination; D010559:Personnel Management / Q000379:methods; D011057:Politics; D011635:Public Health Administration / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D015980:Public Health Practice