News

Editor of New England Journal of Medicine departs

Scott Gottlieb , New York

The editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine has left his job in a dispute over plans by the journal's publisher to use the journal's name and logo to launch a range of other medical publications that would be only nominally controlled by the journal's top editor.

Dr Jerome Kassirer, the journal's editor in chief of eight years, agreed to step down because of his opposition to plans by the Massachusetts Medical Society, which publishes the medical journal, to launch a family of consumer oriented and specialty specific medical journals.

Dr Kassirer had already stoked the medical society's ire by resisting earlier attempts to use the journal's name to sell its newer publications, including two consumer newsletters, as well as several publications written for doctors.

His tenure will not officially end for eight months, but Dr Kassirer will take a seven month sabbatical beginning 1 September, and the journal said that it is already searching for a replacement.

The medical society's president, Dr Jack Evjy, said in a statement jointly issued with Dr Kassirer that their differences of opinion focused on "administrative and publishing issues." In published reports Dr Evjy declined to elaborate on Dr Kassirer's departure. Dr Kassirer also refused to go beyond the written statement, which thanked the society for its past editorial and financial support.

The controversy partly surrounded the Massachusetts Medical Society's efforts to advertise its other publications for doctors and the public by saying they are produced by the "publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine."

Although that is technically accurate, journal editors say that they resent that their hard won trust is being used to sell publications that they do not control and whose quality and accuracy they cannot verify.

The issue has heated up over the past year as the society sought to upgrade its online services and promote its recently purchased journal Hippocrates.

The announcement evoked memories of the American Medical Association's abrupt firing six months ago of Dr George Lundberg, the longstanding editor of JAMA, for publishing an article on perceptions about sex that was deemed to be inappropriate by the association's executive director.

Dr Lundberg, who is now editor in chief of Medscape, a world wide web based medical information site for consumers and doctors, said that the recent departures of two successful medical editors may indicate "the pressure brought on to editors because of the speed at which things are changing in the publishing environment."

"Most people believe there's going to be a shakeout," he added, "and it's forcing people to move quickly on decisions that used to be more deliberative and take more time."

(Credit: SANDY HILL/AP PHOTOS) Dr Jerome Kassirer, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine