Gordon K MacLeod

Gordon Kenneth MacLeod, MD (1929-2007) was a physician and professor of health services administration at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, who also served as the state of Pennsylvania's secretary of health (1979-1980).

In 1971, Dr. MacLeod developed and became the director of the United State's first federal Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) program. He was recruited by Elliot Richardson, former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

In 1972-1973, Dr. MacLeod carried out a Ford Foundation study of three European health care systems in Britain, Germany and Denmark.

In 1979, as Pennsylvania state secretary of health, he managed the health effects of the Three Mile Island accident as well as the polio epidemic among the Amish in the central part of the state. He criticized Pennsylvania's preparedness, in the event of a nuclear accident, at the time for not having potassium iodide in stock, which protects the thyroid gland in the event of radiation exposure, as well as for not having any physicians on Pennsylvania's equivalent of the nuclear regulatory commission.

Dr. MacLeod was elected President of the University Senate and of the Faculty Assembly of the University of Pittsburgh in 1997.

He also co-edited and wrote several chapters of "Health Care Capital: Competition and Control," which was the first book written on capital financing of health care services.

Memorial Services were held for him at the First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh on December 1, 2007, and on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, on August 2, 2008.

Publications

MacLeod, Gordon K. MD (ed.) 1978. Health Care Capital: Competition and Control. Ballinger.

External links

Gordon K. MacLeod's University of Pittsburgh Web Site: http://www.pitt.edu/~gmacleod/

Gordon K. MacLeod's University of Pittsburgh Departmental Web Site: http://www.hpm.pitt.edu/HPM/people/people_faculty_MacLeod.html

Gordon K. MacLeod's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette obituary "Gordon K. MacLeod / Ex-professor at Pitt and former state secretary of health": http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07330/836778-122.stm. November 26, 2007. Pittsburgh: Pittsburgh: Post-Gazette.

Gordon K. MacLeod's University of Pittsburgh obituary: http://mac10.umc.pitt.edu/u/FMPro?-db=ustory&-lay=a&-format=d.html&storyid=7864&-Find. December 06, 2007. University of Pittsburgh's "University Times" 40:8