On April 19, Gov. Deval Patrick named Dr. Michael Wong, an HIV specialist and board president of the AIDS Action Council, as one of 12 new appointees to the state Public Health Council, the policy arm of the Department of Public Health. Wong is an assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Some public health advocates had criticized Mitt Romney, Patrick's predecessor, for allegedly pressuring DPH to adopt policies that conformed to his political positions. Wong said, "It's really clear that one of [new DPH chief] John Auerbach's goals is to use evidence-based data to really bring science back into the whole relationship with smart policy. ..."

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