Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez said he prefers to promote someone from within the department as that person is already familiar with the system and the functions of the Division of Public Health.
“There are several people from within who are interested (to become the new medical director of the division). I would like to pick someone from within,” he told the Variety.
During his term as medical director, Brostrom was also in-charge of the federally funded CNMI Tuberculosis Control Program.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Office of Insular Affairs recognized Brostrom, along with Dr. Dorina Fred of the state of Chuuk in the Federated States of Micronesia, for their dedication and commitment to help cure TB patients in the country and other parts of the Pacific.
Brostrom conducted regular medical missions to FSM to help TB patients, adults and children alike.
Although the CNMI hosts thousands of guest workers from poor Asian countries, the community has one of the most effective TB control programs in the region.
Villagomez said he plans to have the TB program separate from the division so that other healthcare problems in the community can be addressed.
“We are separating the TB program from the medical division,” he said.
While the department is still searching for a new medical director, Deputy Health Secretary John Tagabuel has taken over the division’s administrative functions.
