I started my career in public health “by accident”. When I first arrived at the Epidemiology Section I had no idea that there was such a thing as a residency in public health, and epidemiology, as far as I knew, was that section of the textbook chapter which I always skipped over in order to get to the part about the clinical medicine! But I soon found out that public health provides a real intellectual challenge, and that it is the field of medicine in which the physician’s decision has the most impact.

I was rather skeptical at first as to the professional interest I would find working as an epidemiologist in the military, but I quickly learned otherwise...