Dr. Blumenthal has been involved in the national public health response to terrorism, emergency preparedness, and emerging disease threats including avian flu and AIDS. She has established many international health collaborations including a Middle East Health Initiative. She was a pioneer in applying information technology to improve health and was among the first in the government to use the internet for health education, envisioning and establishing several award winning health websites. Dr. Blumenthal was recently decorated with the Distinguished Service Medal of the US Public Health Service, its highest honor, “for distinguished and pioneering leadership, groundbreaking contributions and dedicated public service that has improved the health of women, our Nation, and the world.”

Dr. Blumenthal serves as distinguished advisor for Health, Science and Medicine at the Center for the Study of the Presidency where she is leading the Center’s 2008 health care initiative. She is also President of the Global Health Institute, LLC. Additionally, she is a clinical professor of Psychiatry at Georgetown and Tufts School of Medicine. She has served as the Elizabeth Blackwell and Bundy Visiting Professor at the Mayo Clinic, as a visiting professor at Stanford University in Washington, as the distinguished visiting professor for Women’s Studies at Brandeis University, and as a visiting fellow at the Harvard University School of Government.

From 1993-1997, Dr. Blumenthal was appointed and served as the country's first ever Deputy Assistant Secretary for Women's Health within the US Department of Health and Human Services in recognition of her pioneering leadership in women’s health. In this position, she developed innovative national initiatives, provided oversight and coordinated a $4 billion dollar budget of research, services and education programs and activities across the agencies of the US Department of Health and Human Services including NIH, CDC and the FDA ensuring that our national health programs targeted the unique needs of women. Dr. Blumenthal served as an advisor to the White House on women’s health and worked with governmental organizations, consumer and health care professional groups to advance women's health in the United States and internationally.

Her accomplishments include developing a coordinated national approach to women's health that dramatically increased attention to these issues, establishing National Centers of Excellence on Women's Health at academic centers across the country to serve as models for women's health care nationwide, establishing a focus on mental health issues and violence against women, establishing international partnerships, launching a coalition of 80 groups on AIDS in women, and initiatives on osteoporosis, nutrition, physical activity, and disease prevention that brought together federal agencies, private sector organizations and the media to respond to these public health problems. Dr. Blumenthal also initiated a unique collaboration with the CIA, NASA and DOD called "From Missiles to Mammograms" that transferred imaging technology used for military and space purposes to improve the early detection of breast cancer.

Additionally, she was the Co-Chair and was responsible for the coordination and implementation of the National Action Plan for Breast Cancer, a Presidential initiative that catalyzed many new programs to accelerate progress in the fight against this disease. For the 12 years prior to this appointment, Dr. Blumenthal directed and served as a Branch Chief of major research programs at the National Institutes of Health on behavioral medicine, disease prevention and mental illness. During this period, she was a leader in exposing the inequities in women's health research and in stimulating new initiatives on gender differences in health and disease. She convened one of the first conferences on women and AIDS at NIH as well as stimulated new initiatives on HIV prevention. Dr. Blumenthal has chaired numerous governmental and professional organization committees and national and international conferences and Commissions. She served as Chair of the NIH’s Health and Behavior Coordinating Committee and Chair of the Federal Coordinating Committees on Women’s Health and the Environment, Imaging Technology, and Breast Cancer and was Director of the National Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center. She also participated as a member of the President’s Interagency Council on Women and served as the United States representative to the World Health Organization’s Global Commission on Women’s Health.

As a leading advocate and national spokesperson on health, Dr. Blumenthal has briefed Heads of States, Health Ministers, and testified before Congress. She has often appeared as a medical expert on national television and radio news programs, served as the Medical Director of a Discovery Channel/American Film Institute Global Health Documentary Festival and as Chief Medical Advisor to a PBS Health Outreach Initiative. She has been the Host and Medical Director for an award winning television series on health. Dr. Blumenthal has authored many scientific articles, edited books, and been the health columnist for US News and World Report and Elle magazines. She is a member of the Board of Directors of several philanthropic and educational institutions including Save the Children, the Academy of Achievement, Stanford University in Washington, and the Meridian International Center. Admiral Blumenthal has received numerous awards including honorary doctorates and has been decorated with the highest medals of the United States Public Health Service for her global leadership and landmark contributions to improving health. She has been named by the New York Times, the National Library of Medicine, and by the Medical Herald as one of the most influential and important women in medicine.