Hershel Jick

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Hershel Jick
Born(1931-12-01)December 1, 1931
DiedOctober 16, 2023(2023-10-16) (aged 91)
Academic background
EducationHarvard University (MD)
Academic work
DisciplineMedicine
Sub-disciplinePharmacology
Pharmaceutical research
InstitutionsBoston University

Hershel M. Jick (December 1, 1931 – October 16, 2023) was an American medical researcher and associate professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, where he was the director of the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program.

Education[edit]

Jick graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1956 and completed an internal medicine residency and clinical pharmacology fellowship.[1]

Career[edit]

Jick is known for researching the negative and positive effects of pharmaceutical drugs. A 1977 study by him and his assistant Jane Porter reported that no more than one patient per 3,600 died because of incorrect drug prescriptions.[2] In 1980, Jick and Porter published the letter "Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics", which has been cited to argue that opioids are rarely addictive.[3][4][5] Jick has said that this study had multiple limitations, such as that it only pertained to patients in the hospital, and did not assess the risk of addiction when opioids were prescribed in outpatient settings.[6][7] The "Porter–Jick study" was mentioned in the Hulu miniseries Dopesick and Jick was portrayed by theatre actor Mark Jacoby.[8]

Outside of medicine, Jick was the author of the book A Listener's Guide to Mozart's Music.[9]

Death[edit]

Jick died on October 16, 2023, at the age of 91.[10]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Read "Adverse Drug Event Reporting: The Roles of Consumers and Health-Care Professionals: Workshop Summary" at NAP.edu.
  2. ^ Cohn, Victor (28 February 1977). "Study Lowers Estimate Of Prescription Drug Toll". The Washington Post. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  3. ^ "How drug companies used 1980 doctor's letter to usher in widespread opioids use". CBS News. Associated Press. 1 June 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  4. ^ Zhang, Sarah (2017-06-02). "The One-Paragraph Letter From 1980 That Fueled the Opioid Crisis". The Atlantic. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  5. ^ Kounang, Nadia (2017-06-01). "One short letter's huge impact on the opioid epidemic". CNN. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  6. ^ Meier, Barry (25 November 2003). "The Delicate Balance Of Pain and Addiction". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
  7. ^ Quinones, Sam (21 April 2015). Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic. Bloomsbury USA. p. 107. ISBN 978-1-62040-250-4.
  8. ^ "A Guide to the Real-Life Events From Hulu's 'Dopesick'". ELLE. 2022-09-06. Retrieved 2022-10-21.
  9. ^ "Hershel Jick". The Lancet. 357 (9264): 1302. April 2001. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(00)04418-4. S2CID 54336907.
  10. ^ "Hershel Jick". Legacy. Retrieved 28 January 2024.

External links[edit]