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The Tennessean New medical examiner sets goals Dr. Bruce Levy, Davidson County's medical examiner, has been named the state's chief medical examiner, a position that has been vacant for nearly three years. Levy will keep his Metro job investigating deaths and performing autopsies. His position as state medical examiner will not include performing autopsies, he said. Instead he will be a consultant to county medical examiners. "The roles are very much complementary," he said yesterday. Dr. Charles Harlan, the most recent state medical examiner, served both roles as well. Harlan left the post in 1995 and now performs autopsies for 63 Tennessee counties. Levy's appointment was made by state Health Commissioner Nancy Menke. Levy, 37, said he plans to talk with all 95 county medical examiners in Tennessee and will promote new medical examiner guidelines that he's helping write. Current guidelines are more than 20 years old, he said. "Many county medical examiners are not sure what they're supposed to do and how," Levy said. The new guidelines will include everything from how to contract with pathologists to what to look for in a scene investigation. They will also include a very strong statement telling medical examiners that an autopsy must be done on a child before the death can be ruled a case of Sudden Infant Death syndrome, Levy said. In some Tennessee counties, that has not happened, he said. Levy said he plans to spend more time tracking trends in how Tennesseans are dying. The office maintains state archives with reports from each county on deaths." We want to use that information better and look for patterns and where clusters of deaths are maybe due to certain things," Levy said. The state job pays $32,000 annually. Levy was hired as Metro's medical examiner last July and is employed at Forensic Medical, which is contracted to provide autopsies for Metro. That job pays $150,000. He is also a clinical assistant professor of pathology at Vanderbilt University. In two years, the state Health Department plans to open a $5 million forensic autopsy office adjacent to a Tennessee Bureau of Investigations laboratory under construction on Ben Allen Road. |
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