Scott C. Ratzan, MD
Scott C. Ratzan, MD is Vice President, Global Health, Government Affairs & Policy for Johnson & Johnson and Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives.
Dr. Ratzan joined Johnson & Johnson in 2002 as Vice President, Government Affairs-Europe, based in Brussels with responsibility for Government Affairs and Policy issues related to pharmaceuticals in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region as well as in global health initiatives such as HIV.
Ratzan's prior position was as Senior Technical Adviser in the Bureau of Global Health at the United States Agency for International Development, (USAID), where he developed the global health communication strategy for U.S. funded efforts in 65 countries.
Ratzan has appeared on Good Morning America and Nightline as well as published articles in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times and in academic journals. His books include the Mad Cow Crisis: Health and the Public Good, Attaining Global Health: Challenges and Opportunities, and AIDS: Effective Health Communication for the 90s. He has delivered many presentations including the Leiter lecture on Quality Health Communication for the National Library of Medicine and an address on risk communication for the National Cancer Institute that was selected in Vital Speeches of the Day. He served on advisory committees for the World Health Organization (WHO) and developed "Maxims for Effective Communication on Health and Risk Issues" published by the WHO in 1998.
Ratzan also has been engaged in U.S. health care issues including serving on the Institute of Medicine Committees on National Quality Report on Health Care Delivery as well as Leading Health Indicators for Healthy People 2010. He has served on a variety of committees
Following a decade in Boston (1988-1998) in academia as founder and Director of the Emerson-Tufts Program in Health Communication, a joint master's degree program between Emerson College and Tufts University School of Medicine, he was based in Washington working with a variety of federal agencies and international organizations including the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Centers for Disease Control and prevention (CDC) professional organizations including the American medical Association and American College of Physicians.
He continues to maintain faculty appointments at Tufts University School of Medicine and George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services as well as the University of Cambridge and the College of Europe in Belgium.
He received his MD from the University of Southern California; MPA from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; and MA from Emerson College.