[3] Presley Marion Rixey, a medical inspector in the United States Navy, was the first individual to serve in a full-time capacity as a physician to the president beginning in 1901.

The physician may also provide medical care and attention to the more than 1.5 million visitors who tour the White House each year, as well as to international dignitaries and other guests of the president.

[5][7] Ruge resigned after Reagan's first term and called his job "vastly overrated, boring and not medically challenging".

The White House physician can enter the Oval Office or Executive Residence at any time; Ruge sometimes invited experts visiting Washington to examine the president.

[6] The White House physician is often selected personally by the president, and most White House doctors are active-duty military officers,[5] partly because most civilians would find closing and later reopening their private practices difficult.