The surgeon general's role explained

Surgeon General Nominee James Holsinger
U.S. Surgeon General nominee James Holsinger testifies during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee July 12, 2007. Holsinger would succeed Richard Carmona, who this week told Congress that the Bush adminstration had interfered with the surgeon general's office for political purposes.
Alex Wong/Getty Images

The office of U.S. Surgeon General has been in the spotlight this past week. Dr. James Holsinger, the president's new appointee, faced questions from senators about his qualifications and politics.

Dr. Richard Carmona, the last man to hold the office, told Congress about political pressure he received from the Bush administration -- including a requirement he mention the president's name a certain number of times each time he gave a speech.

Surgeon General nominee Holsinger vowed that he would rather resign than have politics overrule science.

With all this attention on the office, we wondered what surgeons general are supposed to do, and how much influence they have over how physicians do their jobs.

MPR's Tom Crann posed those questions to Dr. Jon Hallberg, our regular medical analyst.

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