Regulations Rx
Ever wonder why Americans pay the most for healthcare globally, yet don't get the health outcomes they deserve? Aaron Harmon searches for answers, unearthing the hidden stories behind the regulations shaping healthcare in America. If you want to explore these questions and learn about the stories behind healthcare regulations in America, tune in to RegulationsRx.
Regulations Rx
Abraham Lincoln's Impact on Healthcare
In the early 1860's the US was torn apart by war and opposing ideas. In the midst of the conflict, President Lincoln created the USDA, one of the first healthcare laws, and laid the foundations for what would now be known as the FDA.
To help me dive into President Lincoln's impact and explore the history of his presidency, I'm joined by Erin Carlson Mast, President and CEO of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Foundation.
The Lincoln Presidential Foundation (“Foundation”), formerly known as the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Foundation, is a 501c3 nonprofit with over two decades of experience leading and supporting efforts to share the story of Abraham Lincoln’s life, legacy, and leadership with the world. Learn more about the Lincoln Presidential Foundation here: https://www.lincolnpresidential.org/
Welcome to Regulations RX, the podcast that uncovers the intricate world of healthcare regulations. Have you ever wondered why Americans spend more on healthcare than any country but don't achieve better health outcomes? Or why new drugs come with such a hefty price tag? These aren't simple questions, and their answers are deeply rooted in history and the regulations. Join us as we explore the stories behind the regulations, how they work, and how they shape our healthcare system, for better or worse. In 1862, the U.S. was divided and barely hanging on as battles from the Civil War raged on across the country. Abraham Lincoln worked tirelessly as president to create peace and hold the country together, yet, in the midst of war, he took actions that would shape how we do healthcare today. One of those actions was to found the USDA, and inside of the USDA was a small Bureau of Chemistry. This podcast is all about Abraham Lincoln and founding of the FDA. To do this podcast, I needed a historian that knew all the intricate details of his presidency and who he was. Erin Mast is that historian. She is president and CEO of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation. Every time I interview a historian, I get caught up so quickly in the stories they tell, and Aaron was no exception.
SPEAKER_01:I get asked all the time how I made my way into the field of Lincoln because at this point, been in Lincoln in public history for over 20 years now across two different organizations that had a Lincoln focus. Growing up, I was not one of those people who always had a love of Lincoln or was inspired by him. I always thought that I would follow in the footsteps of many of my other family members and go into health and medicine. And so it was really kind of a large, you know, I had some wonderful history teachers in high school that I decided to be a history major and undergrad. And through that experience, I also studied abroad in Greece. I have a minor in ancient Greek, the language, not a hugely useful thing, but a really wonderful area to study. And I was taken with how much pride people I was meeting in Greece had in their cultural heritage and their history. And had been volunteering at a museum in my hometown and thought, you know what, I'll look into doing museums and public history as a profession. My master's is in museum studies, and I worked for several different organizations, including the Smithsia National Building Museum, and then found my way to the National Trust for Historic Preservation right around the time that they started hiring for the Lincoln Cottage Project. So, what that was was a brand new national monument that had been created by President Clinton. It was this historic house that sits on a federal property. And I got to be part of the team that helped preserve that, restore it, and develop it to open it to the public for the first time ever in 2008. And that was an incredible experience. A couple of years later, I became the leader of that organization. And I led it as its CEO for about a decade before making my way out here to Illinois and being the CEO of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation.
SPEAKER_00:And talking to Erin, it became obvious that she had great attention for detail and thoughtfulness, which is all key to getting the groundwork right on such a massive project.
SPEAKER_01:During a major capital project like that, there are a lot of people that are involved who have different expertise. And we also created different advisory groups on preservation, on research. We had some of the best minds in Lincoln scholarship, in museum studies, in preservation involved. And we felt the weight of precedent. We realized we're creating a new national monument for the public. What we do is going to have a lasting impact. And so a lot of it was just sort of both gathering all the information on what we thought would make the most sense to honor what made that place special and why it was saved. It's where Lincoln developed the Emancipation Proclamation. So it was really his ideas that were important and the people he spoke with there and how he how he evolved his ideas into the policies and actions that we know today. I think one of the other things about that is that we had incredible freedom. There was a sense that the traditional historic house model wasn't working for all historic sites, and there was an appetite to create something new. So it was equal best practices and complete creativity and innovation. But it was definitely a group process. Lincoln would probably be uncomfortable with the fact that there was a national monument being created to delve into his history. But at that point, there's already so many other Lincoln museums and monuments and memorials across the country. It freed us up to think about, like I said, the ideas are what's really important here. And I'm excited that we're going to delve into some of those ideas he had and the things he created today.
SPEAKER_00:When I began researching Abraham Lincoln for this podcast episode, I came across a speech from the 1859 Wisconsin State Fair, and he was sharing with the crowd the value of agriculture and how it was important for the government to invest in its success. What I didn't understand was where did Abraham Lincoln become so interested in ag or get his insights in the value of agriculture?
SPEAKER_01:Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, and then his family moved to southern Indiana before relocating to Illinois. While Illinois is so closely associated with Abraham Lincoln's life and legacy, he comparatively spent more time in Indiana. And of course, he was president in Washington, D.C., not in Illinois. But a lot of his foundational political ideas and philosophies come through in speeches he gave while he was living in Illinois. You mentioned the 1859 speech he gives to the Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. And then there's also things like his Lyceum address, one of his first political speeches when he gives in his late 20s, where he's articulating a lot of his political ideas. But his upbringing and his personal lived experience certainly influences a good bit of his political philosophy too. Absolutely. He wasn't a farmer himself, and he was the first person to say that he wasn't a farmer, but he certainly appreciated and understood that experience.
SPEAKER_00:Abraham Lincoln is arguably one of the most respected presidents. Only three can be found on currency circulating in the US. George Washington, Ulysses Grant, and Abraham Lincoln. He is one of the four on Mount Rushmore. From an article on yougov.com. Top of the list is Abraham Lincoln. Eight in ten Americans have a favorable view of the president who freed the slaves and won the Civil War, including 56% who have a very favorable view of him. In a perhaps surprised second place, if going by combined very and somewhat favorable ratings, is John F. Kennedy, whom 73% of Americans have a favorable opinion of. This puts him three points ahead of the more traditional runner-up, George Washington at 70%, who places third on this measure.
SPEAKER_01:This is a question I get asked a lot too. Why did Lincoln have such a huge impact? And I think regardless of how you feel about his impact, about his leadership, it's undeniable that his presidency was incredibly consequential and continues to be very influential nationally and internationally. We could have a full conversation, I think, just on that point. But a few points that I think are particularly relevant. He was president during an unprecedented time where our nation was facing just an existential threat to its existence. Many of the actions he took were geared toward the greatest good for the greatest number, progress, innovation, which by design are meant to have a lasting impact, not a short-term impact. And I think one of the other aspects of this is that Lincoln had a way with words. His words resonate to this day. He's quoted left, right, and center by leaders across time and place. I think it's that ability to communicate, to act, and to communicate together that lead to him having such a huge and lasting impact. And I do want to emphasize the point that it's hard to overstate that Lincoln faced one of the greatest threats to the nation since its founding. Secession in 1860 and 61 really was an existential threat, and Lincoln saw it that way. If the idea of the United States was that we were a self-governing people, he realized that while some of his contemporaries were saying, let the southern states that are seceding secede, Lincoln understood that, but why are they seceding? They're seceding even before he's inaugurated, that process is starting. And it's because they didn't like the outcome of an election. And if if after every election the people who don't like the outcome are allowed to leave, what's the logical endpoint there? No electoral democracy, no electoral government. And so he understood that no, we have to be able to work together and we have to continue to hold free and fair elections, and we will see improvement and compromise through the processes that we've set up here. He didn't want the union to fail. He saw this as a really big deal. All the other acts he does as president hinge on the union staying together. Without the union staying together, there's no Emancipation Proclamation, there's no moral act, there's no Homestead Act, there's no, none of these things are really possible if the union itself crumbles and falls away. Another sort of point in that regard is that it's easy to forget, it's easy for us today to forget that during the Civil War, there were vanishingly few nations that were attempting any kind of representative government. Most countries at that time were absolute monarchies or some other form of authoritarian government. So what we were experimenting with in this nation was it wasn't the standard, it wasn't the norm. It was something that was very new.
SPEAKER_00:So what drove Abraham Lincoln to start the USDA and the Bureau of Chemistry, which was nestled inside of it and would eventually become the modern FDA? The country is at war with itself. Battlefields checkered the land. The southern states were fighting to create their own country, and the president finds time in midst of all of this to create a new federal department.
SPEAKER_01:I think we could forgive Lincoln if the only thing he was focused on was the war effort at the time or slavery or foreign relations. But his administration and a Congress were able to accomplish so much that have really had a lasting impact. And one example of that is the Morrill Act of 1862, which made the USDA possible. Why Lincoln created the USDA, I would say it's a natural merging of two ideas that were really essential to Lincoln's political thought. The first one being free labor, and the second one being education. Lincoln wanted farmers to have access to research and innovations that could help them be more productive, more prosperous, and in turn make the country itself more productive and more process. It's important to note that this isn't a new idea or an idea that originated with Lincoln. Whigs had long supported internal improvement projects and government-sponsored economic development. Lincoln had been a Whig before becoming part of the fledgling Republican Party. So also as important as why Lincoln did it, I think is the how. And the short answer is that in 1862, with Southern Democrats out of Congress, because they left when their state seceded, Republicans could enact their long-standing economic agenda, including the Homestead Act, the Pacific Railway Act, and the Morrill Act, which included the creation of the USDA. Lincoln saw agriculture as a very science-driven process, not just tradition. And it fed into one of his beliefs as to why our nation was different from other nations. In the United States, you were supposed to be able to improve your condition in society. This was in direct contradiction to other theories that were being promoted at the same time. There was a Southern senator from South Carolina who was promoting the Mudsill theory, which Lincoln references in that speech to in Wisconsin in 1859. And the theory rested on this idea that lower classes or laboring classes on the bottom ring of society were there because that's where they were intended to be and meant to be. And there was no sense in investing in their education or opportunity because that was their natural lot in life. Of course, that flew in the face of a lot of the evidence to the contrary. And it was a horrible justification for the system of slavery. And Lincoln understood that, was calling that out in his speech in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, too. Lincoln's personal experience also informed this. There's a quote from him where he says, 25 years ago, I was a hired laborer, hired laborer of yesterday, labors on his own account today, and will hire others to labor for him tomorrow. Advancement, improvement in condition is the order of things in a society of equals. And he goes on to say, free labor has the inspiration of hope. Sure slavery has no hope. The power of hope upon human exertion and happiness is wonderful. I love that quote from Lincoln because he's drawing from his own personal experience, but also pointing to the fact that this is really essential. If we call ourselves a society of equals, if we're a free society, these two things, you can't have labor without education. You can't have education without labor. Those two things have to be working together. That speech he gives in Wisconsin to the State Agricultural Society, it's a really great idea of him explaining some of the very ideas that show why he was in favor of the creation of the USDA. But, and I went back and read it with anticipation. It's not his most inspiring speech. It's funny at times. He pokes fun at himself and suggests that the crowd might be, he suggests aloud that the crowd's probably wondering why he, a politician who's not a farmer, is speaking to them and they have every right to be suspicious of this. But that he feels like if they'll indulge him for a little bit, he has some general principles that he'd like to share with them. He also plays to his crowd a bit by praising the farmers. He says no other human occupation opens so wide a field for the profitable and agreeable combination of labor with cultivated thought as agriculture. He's playing to his crowd here, certainly. And he uses a nice little pun there about cultivated thought. But he's also pointing out, this goes back to the idea of Lincoln wanting the greatest good for the greatest number, that farmers at that time in US history were the most numerous group. And it follows that their interest is in the larger interests, he says. And while maybe 80% of the people at that time were farmers, 100% of the people at that time had to eat, right? And so it stands to reason that he saw this as something that was essential to uplifting all people in the country and to progress and advancement in general. He also goes on to talk about how great it would be to be able to collect and share information to improve yields and capacity, to improve harvests. He talks about infrastructure projects to help bring those larger yields to markets. And he makes that case again that free labor and education are what he calls natural companions. And he says all of that a few years before his presidency and the creation of the Department of Agriculture. But that was also the same year that the Morrill Act, which allowed for the creation of the USDA and land grant colleges, it was passed by Congress in 1859 as well, but President Buchanan vetoed it. So good job, Buchanan. So it was something that was already getting a lot of attention politically then. So why 1862? The Civil War was certainly straining food supplies. President Lincoln believed federal investment in agriculture was essential to national strength. Congress agreed. There were already bits and pieces of what became the USDA. The U.S. Patent Office already had an agricultural department that got folded into the USDA. Early on, there were even some suggestions that something like an agricultural institute would be part of what became the Smithsonian Institution. But when the Smithsonian Institution was created by Congress, the agricultural piece wasn't part of it. But the point is that clearly this idea had been ceded decades prior, had been debated in Congress, and it seems that it was the Civil War creating a sense of urgency for the needs of the country at the time, but also an opportunity for Lincoln's party and administration to get it done, passing the Moral Act in 1862, because they could.
SPEAKER_00:They view their work as ensuring good science is practiced when bringing safe and effective drugs to citizens. The first person Lincoln hired at the Bureau of Chemistry was a chemist named Charles Witherall. Chemistry was an emerging field in the U.S., but Lincoln had the foresight to put scientists in leading positions like this to advance the missions of the departments.
SPEAKER_01:Just even throughout Lincoln's own life, that he had a lot of personal interest in science and innovation. He embraced new technology like the telegraph, but even technology like the photograph. He understood the power of photography to get his image out there. He understood the power of the telegraph to bring information. And he himself, even as commander-in-chief, he would hang out at the telegraph office because he wanted to get information from the frontline himself. So it also understandable that in that same thread, he would appreciate that science has an integral role to play in agriculture, that it's not just about it being a traditional form of labor, but that there are ways that we can actively improve it and make it better. And that science was a way towards doing that. So yeah, you're right. He appointed a chemist to the Bureau of Chemistry, and that's later what became the FDA.
SPEAKER_00:It was such a small group.
SPEAKER_01:It was, yeah. I think they were jokingly called the Seed Store or something like that. But the whole entire USDA was so tiny when it was first started. Lincoln, I think showing how proud he was of it, he referred to it in a message to Congress as the People's Department.
SPEAKER_00:What were some of the other notable things that he did in his presidency?
SPEAKER_01:Other things that were notable. So you've mentioned that the FDA came out of the Bureau of Chemistry that was in the USDA. And another thing is the False Claims Act, which is sometimes referred to as Lincoln's law. War profiteering, contractors selling rotten food, horses that couldn't be used, faulty munitions and artillery to the Union Army was a real problem. And so the False Claims Act is something else that was created in 1863 that empowered whistleblowers, essentially, to sue on behalf of the government. It's still a backbone of fraud enforcement today. During the Civil War, the size of the federal government is ballooning, but it still can't be everywhere at once. And also federal expenses are going through the roof because of the cost of prosecuting the war. And that includes keeping the army supplied and fed, right? If an army marches on its stomach, the supply chain is really important. And so is your Deleted to feed that army. And when a lot of the provisions that you're purchasing as the US Army or US Navy are not what the seller said they were, that becomes a big problem. You want to keep your army said, but you also can't have tainted food. That's actively harming the war effort. It's not as if war profiteering was a new thing or unique to the union. It was happening in the Confederacy too. And it seems like war profiteering is as old as war itself. But there was that really practical issue and concern that this could be actively harming the union war effort, but also it's fraud. It's unjust. It's costing the government money. And so creating the False Claims Act was intended to combat that issue. There was a senator from Michigan, though, who's quoted as saying something at the time, it's not new, but that it sometimes takes a rogue to catch a rogue or something along those lines. Because it is also true that some of the people who were blowing the whistle and bringing cases on behalf of the government were themselves engaging in some of this behavior. And yet when they were successful in bringing these cases on behalf of the government, they were entitled to a percentage of what the government recovered. So it's an interesting way they have that set up, but it's almost equivalent to someone turning states witness, right? That they found this to be the most efficient way that they could entice people to root out the fraud and waste that was happening within the government at the time. Another major thing that Lincoln accomplished during his presidency was the Transcontinental Railroad. The Pacific Railway Act, we in 1862, Lincoln really envisioned how the country could physically be more connected, even as it was politically divided in many ways, and saw infrastructure as a really crucial element to the national growth and unity. National banking acts are another thing that Abraham Lincoln was able to accomplish during his presidency. This is another situation where the Civil War itself just created a little bit more urgency in that regard because doing this helped stabilize the economy during the Civil War. And then the Moral Act did more than just establish the USDA, it also is what established a land grant college in at least one in every state in the US. And that expanded access to higher education. So many major universities today trace their roots to Lincoln's signature, basically. There's a downside, too. It took additional later moral acts to establish some historically black colleges and land grant colleges for tribal nations. And it's also true that many land grant colleges were built on land the federal government had previously seized, purchased, or gained by treaty from Indigenous people. But the main purpose of it, from Lincoln's perspective, was having an immediate and significant impact on improving educational opportunity for laborers and for people who wanted to benefit from the scientific knowledge and advancements that were taking place in fields like agriculture, engineering, et cetera.
SPEAKER_00:So going back to the beginning of this episode, it sounds like you took the same approach that Lincoln would have when you were restoring the cottage. So you were pulling together different groups with different expertise to make sure that you could build something for people that would last. And that's what Lincoln was doing. He was bringing together education. So it all comes together and builds something that lasts for the people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, Lincoln saw how all these things were interconnected. So another example, even, is he himself said that if he's remembered for one thing, it'll be the Emancipation Proclamation. And the Emancipation Proclamation did strike a blow at slavery. But Lincoln understood that the Emancipation Proclamation itself wasn't enough and that there needed to be a constitutional amendment, which is why he supported the 13th Amendment. Lincoln understood that a constitutional amendment ending slavery was important, but he also understood that supporting something like, for example, the Freedmen's Bureau, which provided systems for educational opportunity, financial support to formerly enslaved men and women and children was essential too.
SPEAKER_00:You said earlier that democracy in the U.S. was an experiment. And the U.S. arguably has been very successful. However, if you watch the news now and you hear about the political fighting, the polarization, are there lessons from Abraham Lincoln and his experience and what the country had gone through that gives you hope still?
SPEAKER_01:I recently bought one of my children a t-shirt that says history size, repeats itself. And I because I think it's not uncommon for those of us living in the present for people to be saying there are so many challenges globally. We're deeply divided as a nation. I've even heard people say, Oh, we've never been this divided. And the American Civil War always likes to differ on that point. We can be more divided. But I think it's an example, and one of the reasons why I think Lincoln himself still resonates is that history can be instructive and helpful no matter what is happening. Odds are humanity's been through worse and we've persevered. Might there be a time we don't? Yes. But for now, our track record is that we always have as a nation, but also the overall trajectory for humanity. Every generation's going to face their challenges depending on the times they live in. And I think 20-something Lincoln really had it right in his Lyceum Address when he was talking about it being something that every generation has to recommit themselves to. No generation can rest on their morals. We all have an obligation to maintain these systems of democracy and self-governance, which you're right, have been regressing. Internationally, the number of nations that could be considered a liberal democracy were at their peak several years back. That's been sliding the wrong direction, if you will, for several years now. But that doesn't mean we can't reverse that course. But it does require every generation being dedicated to that. Going back to that speech of Lincoln's in Wisconsin, though, he does point out the importance of hope. And I think Lincoln was an optimist, but that does hinge on the majority of people embracing a lot of his values of truth, justice, equality. He also understood that to have trust in public institutions, which he thought was really essential to maintaining our system of self-governance, those public institutions and our leaders have to conduct themselves in a way that makes them worthy of that respect. And for people to believe that they will be treated fairly and will have justice. But again, I think that's the challenge for all of us, but it's also a challenge that's worth embracing. I am optimistic and I am hopeful.
SPEAKER_00:I'm an optimist as well. Until it comes through our construction, then I had different theories.
SPEAKER_01:We could also see in what Lincoln accomplished that he laid the groundwork for things that were able to increase opportunity education equality and also put appropriate guardrails in place. And things did become safer, healthier, more just in the wake of that. Were there unintended consequences? Absolutely. But later generations have been able to modify, revise, fix, correct. And I think there's a lesson in that too.
SPEAKER_00:So this is a what is it? This is where I've been for quite a while. And it was written in 1878. And if I go to one of the front pages, early history, there's a spot where they talk about the corn. And so they did an assessment. And the assessment was that the capacity of the land could be for as high as 80, I think it was somewhere at 80 acres or 80 bushels of corn per acre. Which I think right now we run 220 to 240 on a given year.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00:And so that was 1878, but all of that science and technology took yields that were would be abysmal by today's standards and tripled them. They're getting essentially triple what they would expect in a good time. So many of those things, and USDA is still around.
SPEAKER_01:And even though Lincoln could foresee that creating the USDA and having that kind of information would be helpful, I don't know that he could have foreseen everything that the USDA has been, everything that the USDA has become and everything that it's been able to accomplish as a result.
SPEAKER_00:I went to college at Langrett University.
SPEAKER_01:I don't know that anyone's actually ever actually mapped the impact on that. Maybe someone has, and it would be really cool to see that. But when you take into account all the things that Lincoln was able to accomplish with Congress and during his administration, staggering the number of lives that he's had an impact on. The millions of people who have gone to Leon Grant colleges, the millions of people, all of us every day are affected by something the USDA is doing, right? In ways that are positive, I would argue.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, I very much agree. So the last part is to talk about the Lincoln Presidential Foundation.
SPEAKER_01:Matthew, too. Yeah. So Lincoln Presidential Foundation is the only national foundation that's focused on increasing access to history education programs, exhibits, and sites that highlight the life and legacy of Abraham Lincoln. And we do our work in partnership with so many others across the nation. We are headquartered in the state of Illinois. Our vision, which I think is relevant to this conversation today, is for a world where freedom and democracy flourish, inspired by the life and work of Abraham Lincoln. And that vision is really inspired by Weacon's own words and speeches, including his Gettysburg Address, where he talks about the unfinished work we have as a nation. We do a whole range of things to help advance our mission and vision. We've created several award-winning short documentary series. The first one we created actually won an Emmy Mid America a couple of years ago. We've also created a lot of original educational resources for educators. We have some signature programming, and we've produced award-winning exhibits too. We have a wonderful partnership that I was delighted to help establish with the National Park Service, another agency that has its roots in Abraham Lincoln. His 1864 Yosemite Grant Act is often considered the precursor to what President Roosevelt did in helping to establish more parks. And then, of course, Woodrow Wilson signing the Organic Act that officially created the National Park Service. But there is a route in Lincoln there. But we really enjoy being able to partner with Lincoln sites, including Lincoln Home National Historic Site in Springfield, for the public benefit. It's really gratifying to be able to do that work that has direct public benefit. Lincoln's presidency permanently altered the relationship between citizens and the federal government by investing in infrastructure, education, and regulation. And I truly believe that uncovering new research and new perspectives on Abraham Lincoln himself is key to understanding and addressing what he called that unfinished work of freedom and democracy. So it seems like studying Lincoln leads you down so many different pathways to understanding the roots of what we know today as the United States and what we are all able to do moving forward. It's also just interesting to see that throughout Lincoln's own life, he's seeing multiple instances where he's concerned that our system of government is being threatened from the beginning of his political career to the end of his life and time as president of the United States. But at every stage, he's able to speak up and do things and to show how he's interpreting what this nation is and means. His speeches about the Declaration of Independence, I think, are really instructive. The Declaration of Independence, the ideals laid out there are Lincoln's compass. The US Constitution is maybe the math, that that map is amendable. That map can change. That those principles of those inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He doesn't see those as changing. It's how we interpret those that change.
SPEAKER_00:I encourage listeners to check out the Lincoln Presidential Foundation website. The web address will be in the show notes, and they have many resources, classes, events, and even a latest generation film contest.
SPEAKER_01:We did get funding for year two of the latest generation film contest. And as that's a phrase Lincoln used a few times, latest generation. Rather than saying the next generation, it was a way of articulating that this is meant if we're doing things right, there will always be a latest generation, not a last generation. And we thought that would be a good name for a contest that was geared towards younger generations as well.
SPEAKER_00:The Bureau of Chemistry would grow up out of the Civil War and through the years to become the Food and Drug Administration we know today. Those early leaders who worked to lay the foundation are in the following order Charles Mayer with Earl, 1862, Henry Ernie, who started in 1864, Thomas Anticell in 1866, Ryland Thomas Brown, who started his role in 1872, then William McMurtry, Peter Collier, Harvey Washington Wiley, Carl Allsberg, and finally Walter Campbell, who was the first commissioner of the newly named FTA in 1940. Many leaders since then have followed, working to make food, cosmetics, drugs, and medical devices safe and effective for Americans and anywhere else in the world where our products go. And all of this has its foundations in the early vision and efforts by Abraham Lincoln. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Regulations RX. Be sure to check out our other podcasts on prescriptionpodcast.com. If you're interested in entering the field of regulatory science, consider Mount Marty University in Yankton, South Dakota. I've helped develop their Forward Thinking Master's program designed to equip the next generation of professionals to tackle the challenges of healthcare product regulations, and it's 100% online for the working professional. Thanks for listening. This podcast provides general information for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical or legal advice. Please consult with qualified professionals for any specific medical or legal concerns you may have.