Scott A Rivkees, M.D.

Dr. Rivkees is a physician-scientist who served as Florida’s State Surgeon General and Secretary of Health from June 2019 to September 2021. As State Surgeon General, Dr. Rivkees also served as state health officer for the Florida Department of Health. In this capacity, he oversaw the operations of the state health office in Tallahassee, 67 county health departments, 22 area offices for the Division of Children’s Medical Services, 12 regional offices for the Division of Medical Quality Assurance, nine area offices for the Division of Disability Determinations and three public health laboratories. Dr. Rivkees is a graduate of Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He received residency, fellowship and postdoctoral training and served as faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Before moving to Florida, Dr. Rivkees served as professor of pediatrics with tenure at Yale University. As associate chair for research he started and directed the Yale Pediatric Thyroid Center, one of the first of its kind in the United States. From 2012 to 2019, Dr. Rivkees served as chair of the department of pediatrics at the University of Florida College of Medicine and physician-in-chief of UF Health Shands Children’s Hospital, part of UF Health Shands Hospital and the University of Florida’s Academic Health Center. He also served as academic chair of pediatrics at Orlando Health and the University of Florida College of Medicine pediatric chair at Studer Family Children’s Hospital at Sacred Heart in Pensacola. Dr. Rivkees has worked with the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on drug safety issues. He was responsible for the safety alert on liver toxicity caused by the antithyroid drug propylthiouracil. This led to major international treatment practice changes. For his effort, he was recognized as the 2018 recipient of the American Thyroid Association’s Paul Starr Award.