Chief Medical Officer (CMO) is the title used in many countries for the senior government official designated head of medical services, usually at the national level. The post is held by a physician who serves to advise and lead a team of medical experts on matters of public health importance.
The post of Chief Medical Officer dates back to Victorian times. The equivalent title may go under different names across countries, for example known as the Surgeon General in the United States and the Chief Public Health Officer in Canada.
Famous quotes containing the words chief, medical and/or officer:
“Perhaps it is the lowest of the qualities of an orator, but it is, on so many occasions, of chief importance,—a certain robust and radiant physical health; or—shall I say?—great volumes of animal heat.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“If science ever gets to the bottom of Voodoo in Haiti and Africa, it will be found that some important medical secrets, still unknown to medical science, give it its power, rather than the gestures of ceremony.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, “Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can” —and walked out of the room.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)