John J. Whyte, M.D., is vice president for continuing medical education at Discovery Health Channel, part of the media conglomerate Discovery Communications. In this role, Dr. Whyte develops, designs and delivers medical education programming for Discovery Health Channel, the leading health channel in more than 64 million homes. Dr. Whyte creates courses, products and services on important clinical topics that appeal to both a medical and lay audience. This includes television shows, online content and DVDs.
Prior to joining Discovery, Dr. Whyte was in the immediate office of the director at the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality. He served as medical adviser and director of the Council on Private Sector Initiatives to Improve the Safety, Security, and Quality of Healthcare (CPSI) — a council created by former Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson.
Prior to this assignment, Dr. Whyte was the acting director of the division of medical items and devices in the coverage and analysis group in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), formerly the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA). CMS is the federal agency responsible for administering the Medicare and Medicaid programs. These programs insure more than 40 million people. In his role at CMS, Dr. Whyte made recommendations on Medicare financing for procedures, equipment or services. His division was responsible for durable medical equipment; orthotics and prosthetics; drugs, biologics and therapeutics; medical items; laboratory tests; and non-implantable devices. As division director as well as medical officer and senior adviser, Dr. Whyte was responsible for more national coverage decisions than any other CMS staff. These decisions included insulin pumps, home prothrombin monitors, respiratory assist devices, cryosurgery for prostate cancer, breast biopsy, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, intravenous iron, stem cells for multiple myeloma, ultrasound for fracture healing and pneumatic compression pumps.
Dr. Whyte is a board-certified internist. He completed an internal medicine residency at Duke University Medical Center and earned a master's of public health (MPH) in health policy and management at the Harvard School of Public Health. Prior to arriving in Washington, D.C., Dr. Whyte was a health services research fellow at Stanford and attending physician in the university's department of medicine. He has written extensively in the medical and lay press on health policy issues.
