Obama taps surgeon general

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The White House said Thursday that President Barack Obama intends to nominate Vivek Hallegere Murthy to be the next surgeon general.

He is the co-founder and president of Doctors for America, which began as Doctors for Obama in 2008. He is a hospitalist attending physician and instructor in medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard Medical School.

He would succeed Regina Benjamin, who announced her resignation from the post in July.