Martin Adel Makary is a British-American surgeon, professor, author, and medical commentator who has served as the 27th Commissioner of Food and Drugs since 2025.
38 Facts About Marty Makary
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Marty Makary is an advocate for disruptive innovation in medicine and physician-led initiatives, such as a surgical checklist that he developed at Johns Hopkins.
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In 2018, Marty Makary was elected to the National Academy of Medicine.
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In November 2024, President-Elect Donald Trump announced Marty Makary would be his nominee to head the Food and Drug Administration as its commissioner.
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Marty Makary was confirmed by the United States Senate in March 2025.
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Marty Makary was born in Liverpool, England, and moved to Baltimore as a young child.
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Marty Makary holds degrees from Bucknell University, Thomas Jefferson University and Harvard University.
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Marty Makary was president of the student body at Harvard and later served on the alumni board.
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Marty Makary completed a surgical residency at Georgetown University in Washington DC where he worked as a writer for The Advisory Board Company.
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Marty Makary completed sub-specialty surgery training at Johns Hopkins in surgical oncology and gastrointestinal surgery under surgeon John Cameron, before joining Cameron's faculty practice as a partner.
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Marty Makary published on frailty as a medical condition, and on safety and teamwork culture in medicine.
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Marty Makary is the first author of the original scientific publications describing "The Surgery Checklist".
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Marty Makary worked with the World Health Organization to develop the official World Health Organization Surgical Checklist.
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Marty Makary was named Mark Ravitch Chair in Gastrointestinal Surgery, an endowed chair at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, becoming the youngest endowed chair recipient at the time at the university.
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Marty Makary was appointed chief of the Johns Hopkins Islet Transplant Center, clinical lead for the Johns Hopkins Sibley Innovation Hub, Executive Director of Improving Wisely, a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation project to lower health care costs, and is founder of the Johns Hopkins Center For Surgical Outcomes Research and Clinical Trials.
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Marty Makary is a pancreatic surgeon and has pioneered novel surgical procedures.
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Marty Makary was awarded the Nobility in Science Award by the National Pancreas Foundation for performing the world's first series of laparoscopic pancreas islet transplant operations.
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Marty Makary specializes in advanced laparoscopic surgery and performed the first laparoscopic Whipple surgery at Johns Hopkins and the first laparoscopic Frey's procedure for pancreatitis.
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Marty Makary's research led to several partnerships, including a grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, to study obesity treatment, and a grant from the same agency to implement safety programs at 100 US hospitals, a project he collaborated on with Peter Pronovost and the American College of Surgeons.
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Marty Makary was the lead author in the original paper introducing a Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Culture.
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Marty Makary has called for the public reporting physician-endorsed quality measures by hospitals.
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Marty Makary has been an outspoken opponent of vaccine mandates, various FDA and CDC policies, and restrictions at colleges and universities.
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In February 2020, Marty Makary said on television that the United States needed to take the threat of COVID-19 seriously and that people should stop all non-essential travel.
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In May 2020, Marty Makary advocated for universal masking in an effort to enable businesses and schools to re-open to minimize economic and educational damage across the United States.
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In November 2020, Marty Makary was critical of the pace at which the FDA was approving the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer.
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Marty Makary had taken issue with the speed at which various US government health organizations had taken to evaluate medications or perform COVID-19-based research.
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In early February 2021, Marty Makary advocated for prioritizing getting as many vaccinated with single doses versus holding vaccines back for second doses.
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Marty Makary considers himself pro-vaccine but has criticized vaccination mandates for populations other than healthcare workers.
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On March 6,2025, Marty Makary met before the US Senate Committee on Heath, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
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Marty Makary's nomination was advanced by the committee to a US Senate vote with a vote of 14 to 9, and subsequently confirmed to the position on March 25,2025.
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Marty Makary is the author of the New York Times Best Selling book Unaccountable, in which he proposes that common sense, physician-led solutions can fix the healthcare system.
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Marty Makary is the author of Mama Maggie a personal story about his distant relative Magda Gobran, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee working in the garbage slums of Cairo.
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Marty Makary is the editor of the surgery textbook General Surgery Review.
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Marty Makary gave money to Republican House Member Frank Wolf in the mid-2000s.
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Marty Makary has been a public adviser to Paragon Health Institute, a conservative health care think tank.
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Marty Makary is the recipient of numerous research and teaching awards, including the Best Teacher Award for Georgetown Medical School and research awards from the Washington Academy of Surgery and the New England Surgical Society.
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Marty Makary has been a visiting professor at over 30 US medical schools and lectures frequently on innovation in health care.
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Marty Makary was named one of the most influential people in healthcare by HealthLeader magazine in 2013.