Former Public Health Service doctor joins Northrop

Sam Shekar, M.D., has been appointed chief medical officer of Northrop Grumman Corp.’s Information Systems sector.

Shekar will provide strategic direction for the company’s health information technology business, according to a Northrop announcement today

He also will serve as an adviser on IT and health policy issues in the medical, clinical and public health fields to the health care and public health community.

Before joining Northrop Grumman, Shekar served as a physician consultant after 21 years with the U.S. Public Health Service.

A former assistant surgeon general and rear admiral, Shekar has held executive-level health policy management positions at the Office of Public Health and Science, the National Institutes of Health, and the Health Resources and Services Administration.

He also worked as a medical officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2005, he served in Louisiana and Florida, directing the federal health response in Florida to Hurricane Wilma.

Shekar is a board-certified Fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine and holds a medical license in Maryland. He earned bachelor’s, master’s of public health and doctorate of medicine degrees from the University of Michigan.