Leadership

Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office (proposed)

Seth Foldy, MD, MPH, FAAFP
Senior Advisor for Public Health Practice

Seth Foldy, MD, MPH, FAAFP, is senior advisor for public health informatics and practice in the Public Health Surveillance and Informatics Program Office (proposed). He joined CDC in October 2010 after many years as a family physician, medical educator, local and state health officer, and informatics consultant.

While in medical practice Dr. Foldy developed patient screening and clinical support tools used in occupational, environmental, and community health. When he was with the City of Milwaukee Health Department, he explored public health uses of regional emergency medicine internets, culminating in a rapidly deployed four-state system for detecting possible cases of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome). Dr. Foldy was co-founder and chief medical officer of the Wisconsin Health Information Exchange, which now links more than 50 hospitals and clinics across Wisconsin and was used to help track in real-time the impact of influenza H1N1. He assisted clinicians at Emory University and CDC with developing tools to help assess individuals’ need for medical attention during the influenza H1N1 pandemic.

Dr. Foldy helped write health information technology plans for the states of Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin, and he co-chaired the WIRED for Health board that recently completed Wisconsin’s state-level health information exchange plan. He has chaired health informatics committees for the national associations of both local and state health offices and has served on the boards of the eHealth Initiative, National eHealth Collaborative, and the State Alliance for eHealth. He helped form the Joint Public Health Informatics Taskforce, which links several associations to accelerate and harmonize electronic information system development.

Dr. Foldy has degrees from Stanford University (BA, human biology), Case Western Reserve University (MD), and the Medical College of Wisconsin (MPH). He is board certified in family medicine and preventive medicine and has academic appointments at several Wisconsin schools.

Dr. Foldy was a family physician at the Great Brook Valley Health Center, Worcester, MA, 1985–1987; clinic medical director and residency faculty at MetroHealth Medical Center, Cleveland OH, 1987–1996; and medical director and then Commissioner of Health for the City of Milwaukee Health Department, 1996–2004. He was an informatics and international public health consultant, professor, and medical director of Health Care for the Homeless of Milwaukee from 2004–2009. Then he was state health officer and administrator of the Division of Public Health for Wisconsin’s Department of Health Services from January 2009 until he joined CDC in October 2010.

Dr. Foldy was awarded the Milton & Ruth Roemer Prize for Creative Local Public Health Work from the American Public Health Association in 2002; and he received the Award for Excellence in Information Technology from the National Association of County and City Health Officials in 1999.