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Comment by boeingUH60 | Hacker News Reader

> For example we don't insist that the secretary of health should be a doctor.

I'll definitely want my country's Secretary of Health to be a doctor who understands public health and its related policies, not a politician whose primarily skill is being popular and getting elected.

>The main qualities needed is being a good manager and able to listen to alternative views and being a good politician.

A Health Secretary who's not a doctor would find it difficult to judge if they're being fed the right information by their advisers.

Remember that Boeing's woes began when the company ceased to be run by the engineers and aviation experts, but instead by the arrogant MBA counters who likely pitched themselves as good managers. It turns out they mostly cared about management and printing cash, but lacked engineering expertise, leading to screwups like the 737 Max.

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> I’ll definitely want my country’s Secretary of Health to be a doctor who understands public health

If by “doctor” you mean, as people usually do in general conversation, an MD (or DO), why? Public health is an entirely different discipline from medicine, with its own series of professional degrees. As is public administration. As is public policy. Why would a top-level public administrator and public policy professional in the field of public health need to have a professional degree in medicine more than one in public health, public administration, or public policy?

OTOH, your Surgeon-General or equivalent should definitely be a medical doctor.

>A Health Secretary who's not a doctor would find it difficult to judge if they're being fed the right information by their advisers.

That's the point of being a good manager. Being able to forge personal relationships and to trust your underlings. Having experience in an industry isn't that helpful when dealing with policy that lies outside a heads direct field of expertise.

Being a doctor doesn't automatically provide a greater insight into what would make policies more successful. Yes he might have first hand knowledge of conditions on the ground, but the longer he's been out of doctoring the less up to date he will be and he will just be stuck with old notions of what things were like years ago.

Your point about boeing is irrelevant, because the managment these had motives beyond engineering excellence, i.e making money.

> I'll definitely want my country's Secretary of Health to be a doctor who understands public health and its related policies, not a politician whose primarily skill is being popular and getting elected.

Why not? The head of the WHO is not a medical doctor, he's a doctor in the sense that he has a PhD.

There is probably no organization more trusted than the WHO.

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