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Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia Republican and physician picked by President-elect Donald Trump to oversee the health and availability of essential human services to all Americans, belongs to a medical association whose unconventional views are certain to raise questions during his confirmation hearings next year. Trump nominated Price, re-elected last month to a seventh term, to become secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.An orthopedic surgeon, he is a member of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, whose 5,000 members consider the group a nonpartisan professional organization dedicated to “preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship and the practice of private medicine.” (Goldstein and Clark, 12/5)

The Trump transition team has begun conferring with the Department of Health and Human Services. So far, though, it’s steered clear of the Food and Drug Administration. Members of Trump’s health policy landing team held two introductory sessions on Friday with non-political staff at HHS, according to sources familiar with the meetings. (Kaplan, 12/6)

Dr. John Jenkins, a key official at the US Food and Drug Administration known for striking a delicate balance between agency standards and industry interests, will retire next month. Jenkins has worked for the agency for much of the past 25 years, most recently as the director of the Office of New Drugs, where he has been responsible for overseeing a rising number of drug approvals. In 2015, for instance, the agency endorsed 45 novel new medicines, an output that has been rising in recent years even as industry applications remained fairly steady, according to an FDA report. (Silverman, 12/5)