American · b. 1970
Marty Makary is an American surgeon, researcher, and writer. He trained as a pancreatic and general surgeon and spent much of his career at Johns Hopkins, where he held a professorship in health policy and surgery. He studied surgical quality and patient safety and published widely in medical journals, including work on the Surgical Safety Checklist and on hospital billing practices. He also wrote for general readers. His books include Unaccountable (2012), which criticizes hospital secrecy over errors and costs, The Price We Pay (2019), which argues that waste and pricing games drive up American health care costs, and Blind Spots (2024), about medical establishment errors. He appeared often on television and in opinion pages as a commentator on health policy. In 2025 he was confirmed as Commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. His work matters because it brought arguments about price transparency and hospital finances to a general audience.