Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D., editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, will deliver lectures at Rhode Island Hospital and at Brown University on Wednesday, April 18, 2007. The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical student honor society, are sponsoring the talks, which are free and open to the public.

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D., editor-in-chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, will deliver two talks in Providence on Wednesday, April 18, 2007. The first, titled “Publishing in a High-Profile Medical Journal,” will be held at noon in George Auditorium at Rhode Island Hospital. The second, “Full Research Data Disclosure: Lessons from the Vioxx Story,” starts at 4:30 p.m. in the Salomon Center for Teaching, Room 001, on The College Green at Brown University.

Both lectures are free and open to the public. The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and the school’s chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha are sponsoring the talks. Alpha Omega Alpha is the only national honor society for medical students in the United States.

Drazen, a pulmonologist and Harvard Medical School professor, is top editor at the world’s most influential medical journal. The Journal, owned by the Massachusetts Medical Society, publishes new research findings, review articles and editorials on topics of importance to biomedical scientists and physicians. The Journal is read by more than 500,000 people in 177 countries each week and is cited in scientific literature more than any other medical journal. Drazen has served as editor-in-chief since 2000.

At Brown, Drazen will discuss lessons from the rise and fall of the prescription painkiller Vioxx.

Approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1999, and used by about 20 million Americans, Vioxx was withdrawn from the market in 2004 by drug maker Merck & Co. after a study showed that the painkiller doubled the risk of heart problems. Results of previous Vioxx research, supported by Merck and published in the Journal, did not include all adverse reactions suffered by patients in a clinical trial. Drazen will discuss issues surrounding these events.

Jeffrey M. Drazen, M.D.

Drazen serves as the eighth editor-in-chief at the Journal since its acquisition by the Massachusetts Medical Society in 1920. His responsibilities include oversight of all editorial content and policies. Drazen’s editorial background includes service as an associate editor or editorial board member for the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, and the American Journal of Medicine.

A specialist in pulmonology, Drazen maintains an active research program and has published more than 300 articles on topics such as lung physiology and the mechanisms involved in asthma. Drazen is the Distinguished Parker B. Francis Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, professor of physiology at the Harvard School of Public Health, and senior physician at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In 2003, he was elected as a member of the Institute of Medicine. Drazen currently serves on the National Institutes of Health Public Access Working Group, the Veterans’ Administration National Research Advisory Committee, and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute Division of Lung Disease Executive Planning Committee.

Editors: Brown University has a fiber link television studio available for domestic and international live and taped interviews and maintains an ISDN line for radio interviews. For more information, call the Office of Media Relations at (401) 863-2476.

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