Marty Makary

Martin Adel Makary, MD, MPH, is a British-American surgeon , health policy researcher, author, and government official serving as the 27th Commissioner of Food and Drugs at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since April 2025. A professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and chief of islet transplant surgery, Makary has authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and multiple New York Times bestselling books critiquing inefficiencies in American healthcare, including opaque pricing and overuse of low-value medical interventions.

Makary's career highlights include pioneering the surgical safety checklist to reduce operative errors, leading early studies on patient frailty to improve surgical outcomes, and advancing minimally invasive pancreas and gastrointestinal procedures, earning him election to the National Academy of Medicine in 2018 and the Nobility in Science Award from the National Pancreas Foundation. As FDA Commissioner, confirmed by the Senate in March 2025, he has prioritized evidence-based regulatory reforms, enhanced transparency in agency decision-making, integration of artificial intelligence in reviews, and a commitment to "gold-standard science" over expedited approvals lacking rigorous data.

His public commentary, often featured in outlets like The Wall Street Journal , has challenged institutional complacency in medicine, advocating for accountability in areas such as diagnostic errors and treatment overutilization, while emphasizing empirical outcomes over consensus-driven practices. Makary's approach reflects a focus on causal mechanisms in healthcare failures, drawing from frontline surgical experience and policy analysis to promote systemic reforms.

Martin Makary was born in Liverpool , England , to an Egyptian family. As a young child, he relocated with his family to Baltimore , Maryland , where he was raised in a medical household; his father worked as a cancer researcher and hematologist, while his mother contributed to the family's emphasis on healthcare professions. The family later moved to Danville, Pennsylvania , after his father accepted a position at Geisinger Medical Center.

This environment profoundly shaped Makary's early exposure to medicine , with parental involvement in oncology and research fostering an interest in patient safety and systemic healthcare issues from a young age. Makary has referenced familial discussions on medical ethics and evidence-based practice , influenced by his father's clinical work, which later informed his own critiques of institutional biases in healthcare delivery. He has also spoken of a sister who pursued epidemiology , highlighting a household tradition of scientific inquiry into public health challenges.

The immigrant background of his Egyptian parents instilled values of resilience and empirical skepticism toward unverified medical dogmas, which Makary credits for his later advocacy against groupthink in professional medicine . These formative influences, rooted in direct observation of clinical research and family emphasis on data-driven decision-making , preceded his academic pursuits and underscored a commitment to reforming opaque healthcare practices.

Makary earned a bachelor's degree in biological sciences from Bucknell University before pursuing medical training. He received his M.D. from Thomas Jefferson University's Sidney Kimmel Medical College in 1998. In the same year, he obtained a Master of Public Health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, reflecting an early integration of clinical and policy-oriented education. Makary then completed a surgical residency at Georgetown University Hospital.

His early interests in medicine stemmed from a family immersed in healthcare; born in Liverpool , England , and raised in Baltimore , Maryland , Makary grew up in a household where his father worked as a cancer researcher and his mother served as a nurse.