Do airline companies have a Chief Medical Officer? I was wondering if airline companies have a Chief Medical Officer who is in charge of the well-being of passengers. For example:


in timing the lights on/off moments on intercontinental flights;
timing and type of food served, to support periods of sleep, wake and disembarcation;
airconditioner procedures, to ensure passenges don't get sick from too cold airconditioners (for example when the captain released power from the engines to the airconditioners after take-off, while the cabin crew had set it to min-min on an insufficient EPU at a hot airfield, it happily started blowing 10 degrees C in my neck);
methods and moments of desinfecting the air/passengers when contagious diseases break-out (or a flu epidemic in the US, with all its internal air-traffel);
I'm not sure if every airline is the same. However each major airline I am familiar with does have a medical unit, usually headed by a doctor.

However, most of their efforts are actually dedicated internally - by that I mean looking after their employees. Things like:


Assessing the employees ability to return to work after an injury or illness
Fatigue management policy
Assessing whether a certain condition is acceptable to work with
Overseeing drug and alcohol rehabilitation (in some cases in Australia at least the employee is not automatically fired for being drunk/on drugs, they are allowed to complete a program and continue work)
Occupational health and safety assessments
General 'doctoring' duties for aircrew


Of course they are also involved in passenger health policy development, but as I said - the majority of their work is dealing with their own staff (at least, this is from my viewpoint, but I may not be seeing the whole picture). 

In terms of an outbreak like you have mentioned, there is always an action plan ready to be put in place which is developed with the government health department (or CDC in USA).