Dr. Eduardo Sanchez
Vice-President and
Chief Medical Officer
Blue Cross and Blue Shield Texas
Biography
Eduardo J. Sanchez, M.D., M.P.H. is a Vice President and the Chief Medical Officer for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas. Prior to joining Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, he served as Director of the Institute for Health Policy at The University of Texas (UT) School of Public Health. Dr. Sanchez served as Commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services from 2004 to 2006 and the Texas Department of Health from 2001 to 2004.
Trained as a family physician, Dr. Sanchez practiced family medicine in Austin, Texas from 1992 to 2001. As a clinician, he mostly worked in settings that provided medical care to the uninsured and underinsured. He served as the city/county local health officer and Chief Medical Officer for the Austin-Travis County Health and Human Services Department from 1994 to 1998.
Dr. Sanchez received his M.D. in 1988 from the UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas. He holds an M.P.H. from the UT School of Public Health; an M.S. in biomedical engineering from Duke University, and a B.S. in biomedical engineering and B.A. in chemistry from Boston University.
Dr. Sanchez is chairing the Advisory Committee to the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and as Chair of the National Commission on Prevention Priorities (NCPP), which has ranked clinical preventive services and is doing work to evaluate community preventive services. Dr. Sanchez served on the IOM Committee on Progress in Preventing Childhood Obesity and is currently serving on the IOM Standing Committee on Childhood Obesity. He recently chaired the IOM Committee on Local Government Actions to Prevent Childhood Obesity and co-chaired the National Governors' Association Shaping a Healthier Generation Advisory Council which resulted in reports with recommendations for local government and state government, respectively, to address childhood obesity.
In addition to his interest and activity related to childhood obesity, Dr. Sanchez is interested in the issues of health disparities and health equity.