• Public & Media Relations
• Upstate News Home
• About This Office
• Today's Calendar
• Photo Gallery
• News Archives
• Publications
• Physician's Practice
• UpstateOnline
• Upstate Health
• Freedom of Information
• Upstate Social Media
• Public Affairs & Communications Home

Upstate News

Lloyd F. Novick, MD, receives Herman Biggs Public Health Award

Lloyd F. Novick, M.D., professor of medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University, where he directs the teaching program in preventive medicine, has been named the recipient of the Herman M. Biggs Public Health Award by the New York Public Health Association. The award is given annually in recognition of outstanding service in public health in New York.

Novick also serves as commissioner of health in Onondaga County. He previously served as commissioner of health and secretary of human services for Vermont, director of health services for Arizona and director of the Office of Public Health in New York. He is editor of the Journal of Public Health Management and Practice and a forthcoming text (August 2000) “Public Health Administration: Principles for Population-Based Administration.”

During his 10 years with the New York State Health Department, Novick directed state-wide public health campaigns to improve immunization, reduce the incidence of tuberculosis and sexually-transmitted diseases and initiated efforts for surveillance and prevention of HIV infection in women and children. In more than four years with Onondaga County, he has worked to strengthen public health infrastructure emphasizing efforts to reduce infant mortality and health risks faced by adolescents.

The award is named for Herman M. Biggs (1859-1923), who was a dominant force in the New York City Department of Health for 26 years. He instituted the reporting of tuberculosis despite intense opposition from the medical profession, the New York Academy of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association. After retirement, he became the first commissioner of health for New York in 1914.