Jerry Avorn
Encyclopedia
Jerome "Jerry" Lewis Avorn, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
and Chief of the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology
Pharmacoepidemiology
Pharmacoepidemiology is the study of the use of and the effects of drugs in large numbers of people.To accomplish this study, pharmacoepidemiology borrows from both pharmacology and epidemiology. Thus, pharmacoepidemiology is the bridge between both pharmacology and epidemiology...
and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He invented the practice of "academic detailing
Academic detailing
Academic detailing is “university or non-commercial-based educational outreach.” The process involves face-to-face education of prescribers by trained health care professionals, typically pharmacists, physicians, or nurses...
" in which pharmacists, nurses, and physicians educate doctors about cost-effective prescribing practices using the same tactics that drug companies employ to market their products. He received a B.A. from Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in 1969 and M.D. from Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
in 1974.
Biography
Dr. Avorn was born February 13, 1948 in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and grew up in Rockaway, Queens
Rockaway, Queens
The Rockaway Peninsula, informally The Rockaways, is the name of a peninsula of Long Island, all of which is located within the New York City borough of Queens. A popular summer resort area since the 1830s, Rockaway has become a mixture of lower, middle, and upper-class neighborhoods...
. While attending Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
during the tumultuous opposition to the Vietnam War
Opposition to the Vietnam War
The movement against US involvment in the in Vietnam War began in the United States with demonstrations in 1964 and grew in strength in later years. The US became polarized between those who advocated continued involvement in Vietnam, and those who wanted peace. Peace movements consisted largely of...
and American civil rights movement, he distinguished himself as a leading campus activist against the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
with his investigative journalism for the Columbia Daily Spectator
Columbia Daily Spectator
Columbia Daily Spectator is the daily student newspaper of Columbia University. It is published at 112th and Broadway in New York, New York. Founded in 1877, it is the oldest continuously operating college news daily in the nation after The Harvard Crimson, and has been legally independent of the...
. In the summer of 1969, he wrote Up Against the Ivy Wall with fellow Spectator journalists about the campus uprisings at Columbia
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
Dr. Avorn graduated from Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
with an M.D.
Doctor of Medicine
Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...
in 1974. He was a resident at the Cambridge Hospital
Cambridge Hospital
The Cambridge Hospital campus is a community teaching hospital located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is one of three hospital campuses that are part of Cambridge Health Alliance.-Services:...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
and then at the Beth Israel Hospital (now the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts is a major flagship teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. It was formed out of the 1996 merger of Beth Israel Hospital and New England Deaconess Hospital...
in Boston, Massachusetts. He became an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
in 1985 and a full Professor in 2005.
In 1983, he published his first paper on academic detailing
Academic detailing
Academic detailing is “university or non-commercial-based educational outreach.” The process involves face-to-face education of prescribers by trained health care professionals, typically pharmacists, physicians, or nurses...
. The practice has now been taken up by several hospitals and governments, such as Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, Kentucky
Kentucky
The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, and Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...
. His work on academic detailing
Academic detailing
Academic detailing is “university or non-commercial-based educational outreach.” The process involves face-to-face education of prescribers by trained health care professionals, typically pharmacists, physicians, or nurses...
was featured in the Wall Street Journal and on The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
.
His later research documented the high rate at which patients do not take their medications as directed, and the factors (older age, low income, non-white race) associated with this common problem. Other studies measured the risk of side effects caused by specific drugs, such as the appearance of a condition similar to Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
in older patients taking certain potent tranquilizers. He and his colleagues have also published several studies on the cost-effectiveness of drugs, systematically comparing a product’s beneficial effects with its price tag.
In 1996 he published Reduction of bacteriuria and pyuria after ingestion of cranberry juice in the Journal of the American Medical Association
Journal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...
which identified cranberry juice
Cranberry juice
Cranberry juice is the juice of the cranberry. Commercially, it is sold in either as a pure juice, which is quite tart, or, more commonly, as cranberry juice "cocktail" or "drink" , in blends with other juices, such as apple or grape, or mixed with water and corn syrup, sugar, or an artificial...
as an effective means of controlling urinary tract infections in elderly women.
The unit he now heads, the Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics (known internally as DOPE), continues to study the relationship between the benefits, risks, and costs of medications; it also conducts a teaching program on these topics at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital for the Harvard medical students, interns, and residents studying there. Dr. Avorn is the author of over 200 papers in the medical literature on medication use and outcomes, and is one of the most frequently cited researchers in the field of social science and medicine. A cogent advocate for more rational prescribing, he has testified several times before Congress on medication-related issues, and his work has been featured on National Public Radio (All Things Considered, Morning Edition, The Connection) and in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, and USA Today. Dr. Avorn is also past president of the International Society of Pharmacoepidemiology http://www.pharmacoepi.org/.
His paper on coxibs was one of the first medical research papers to demonstrate that Vioxx increased some patients' risk of heart attack and stroke. In 2006 he testified as a plaintiff’s expert witness in the Vioxx litigation, but he donates all profit from his involvement to his Alosa charitable foundation.
Dr. Avorn lives in Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline, Massachusetts
Brookline is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States, which borders on the cities of Boston and Newton. As of the 2010 census, the population of the town was 58,732.-Etymology:...
with his wife, community activist Karen Tucker. They have two grown sons: Andrew Avorn (Columbia University Class of 2008), and Nathaniel Avorn (Connecticut College Class of 2003). In his leisure time, Dr. Avorn enjoys napping, reading, and travel.
Academic Detailing
Early in his medical career, Dr. Avorn established an interdisciplinary research team to study how physicians prescribe drugs, how patients take them, and the clinical and resulting economic outcomes. His studies helped define how pharmaceutical company promotion and scientific information interact to shape doctors’ decisions about which drugs to use, with the former often dominating.In the 1980s, Dr. Avorn devised a new approach to improve doctors’ ability to make accurate prescribing decisions. He observed that the promotional activities of pharmaceutical companies and their sales representatives (known as “detail men”) used cutting edge strategies to change physician behavior and sell their products. By contrast, medical school faculty may have had a more complete and balanced grasp of the scientific issues, but were much less effective communicators. He devised an approach known as “academic detailing
Academic detailing
Academic detailing is “university or non-commercial-based educational outreach.” The process involves face-to-face education of prescribers by trained health care professionals, typically pharmacists, physicians, or nurses...
” which took the effective communications strategies of the drug industry and used them to present unbiased, evidence-based education about proper prescribing. In several papers in the New England Journal of Medicine
New England Journal of Medicine
The New England Journal of Medicine is an English-language peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It describes itself as the oldest continuously published medical journal in the world.-History:...
, JAMA
Journal of the American Medical Association
The Journal of the American Medical Association is a weekly, peer-reviewed, medical journal, published by the American Medical Association. Beginning in July 2011, the editor in chief will be Howard C. Bauchner, vice chairman of pediatrics at Boston University’s School of Medicine, replacing ...
, and other medical journals, he and his colleagues showed that such programs could improve prescribing decisions and more than cover their costs through reductions in improper medication expenditures. Today, programs based on this work are in place in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, and throughout the developing world.
Powerful Medicines
Dr. Avorn is the author of the 2004 book "Powerful Medicines"About the book, Senator Edward M. Kennedy (D-MA) said, “Powerful Medicines” is a must read for anyone interested in the use, abuse, and economics of prescription drugs. The issues it addresses are central to the ongoing debate about how to reduce the cost and improve the quality of health care in America."
Education
| Date | Degree | Institution | Subject |
| 1988 | Certification | American Board of Internal Medicine | Geriatric Medicine |
| 1977 | Diplomate | American Board of Internal Medicine | |
| 1975-1977 | Resident in Internal Medicine | Beth Israel Hospital, Boston, MA | |
| 1974-1977 | Clinical Fellow in Medicine | Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA | |
| 1974-1975 | Intern in Medicine | Cambridge Hospital, Cambridge, MA | |
| 1974 | M.D. | Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA | |
| 1974 | Certification | National Board of Medical Examiners | |
| 1974 | License | State of Massachusetts | |
| 1969 | A.B. | Columbia University, New York, NY | |
Appointments and Affiliations
| Dates | Title | Organization | City, State/Province | Country |
| 1998- | Chief, Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics | Brigham and Women's Hospital | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1992–Present | Physician | Brigham and Women's Hospital | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1992–Present | Attending Physician | Brigham and Women's Hospital | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1990–Present | Associate Professor of Medicine | Harvard Medical School | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1989-1994 | Physician | Beth Israel Hospital, Department of Medicine | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1987-1989 | Associate Physician | Beth Israel Hospital, Department of Medicine | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1986-1992 | Associate Physician | Brigham and Women's Hospital | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1985-1990 | Associate Professor of Social Medicine | Harvard Medical School | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1984-1987 | Assistant Physician | Beth Israel Hospital, Department of Medicine | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1981-1992 | Attending Physician | Beth Israel Hospital | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1979-1985 | Assistant Professor of Social Medicine and Health Policy | Harvard Medical School | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1977-1984 | Assistant in Medicine | Beth Israel Hospital, Department of Medicine | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1977-1981 | Attending Physician | Beth Israel Hospital | Boston, MA | United States |
| 1977-1979 | Instructor in Preventive and Social Medicine | Harvard Medical School | Boston, MA | United States |
| Honors/Awards | ||