MLB names independent program administrator

Major League Baseball and the MLB Players Association have appointed Dr. Jeffrey M. Anderson as the new independent administrator of the Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.

The director of sports medicine and head team physician at the University of Connecticut since 1994, Anderson will administer testing requirements, monitor collection procedures and testing protocols and audit test results. He will also administer the process of the Therapeutic Use Exemption, which permits athletes to take a prohibited medication. In addition, Anderson will prepare and release an annual public report on the program's findings.

Anderson, who assumes the position previously held since 2006 by Dr. Bryan W. Smith, has been an assistant clinical professor of family medicine at the University of Connecticut's Health Center since 1996 and medical director for research in the Department of Kinesiology's Human Performance Laboratory in the Neag School of Education since '05.

Anderson serves as chair of the NCAA Committee on Competitive Safeguards and Medical Aspects of Sports. The University of Michigan Medical School graduate is board certified in family medicine, with an added qualification in sports medicine.