This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/mar/25/andrew-herxheimer-obituary
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Andrew Herxheimer obituary | Andrew Herxheimer obituary |
| (4 days later) | |
| In 1995 Andrew Herxheimer, who has died aged 90, was driving back from a conference with Dr Ann McPherson, campaigner for patients’ rights, when they compared notes: she had recently undergone a mastectomy and he faced a knee replacement. Both found their experience as doctors was no help in knowing what to expect. This inspired them to found DIPEx, a splendid database of individual patient experience, now called healthtalk.org, where patients can listen to other patients talking about their illness. Periodicals from the Times to GQ magazine have endorsed it; in 2015 it attracted 5m visits. | |
| That conversation, which took place when Herxheimer was 70, was the start of his third career; he had begun as a clinical pharmacology and therapeutics lecturer at the London hospital in 1960, focusing on what drugs do to real people. Concerned at the lack of impartial information available to doctors, in 1962 he entered the second phase of his career, founding the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, published by the Consumers’ Association, and editing it for 30 years. It so impressed the Department of Health that it paid for a copy to be sent to every general practitioner in Britain. | That conversation, which took place when Herxheimer was 70, was the start of his third career; he had begun as a clinical pharmacology and therapeutics lecturer at the London hospital in 1960, focusing on what drugs do to real people. Concerned at the lack of impartial information available to doctors, in 1962 he entered the second phase of his career, founding the Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin, published by the Consumers’ Association, and editing it for 30 years. It so impressed the Department of Health that it paid for a copy to be sent to every general practitioner in Britain. |
| It is partly thanks to Herxheimer, too, that we have readable leaflets in medicine packs: he was a member of the Medicine Labelling Group, which consisted of experts from the consumer movement, the non-prescription medicines industry, and medicines information design, and which operated between 1998 and 2009. | It is partly thanks to Herxheimer, too, that we have readable leaflets in medicine packs: he was a member of the Medicine Labelling Group, which consisted of experts from the consumer movement, the non-prescription medicines industry, and medicines information design, and which operated between 1998 and 2009. |
| A true internationalist, Herxheimer also founded the clinical pharmacology department at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, was a consultant to the World Health Organisation, and chaired both the International Society of Drug Bulletins from its foundation in 1986 until 1996, and the health working group of Consumers International, the global consumer advocacy body. | A true internationalist, Herxheimer also founded the clinical pharmacology department at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, was a consultant to the World Health Organisation, and chaired both the International Society of Drug Bulletins from its foundation in 1986 until 1996, and the health working group of Consumers International, the global consumer advocacy body. |
| He was born into a secular Jewish family in Berlin, to Ilse (nee Koenig) and Herbert Herxheimer. His father was a chest physician. The family fled to Britain in 1938, when Andrew was 12. He went to Highgate school, north London, and then St Thomas’ hospital medical school, graduating in 1949. After national service he held junior hospital jobs before moving to the London hospital. He eventually switched to Charing Cross medical school in London, remaining there until he retired in 1992. | He was born into a secular Jewish family in Berlin, to Ilse (nee Koenig) and Herbert Herxheimer. His father was a chest physician. The family fled to Britain in 1938, when Andrew was 12. He went to Highgate school, north London, and then St Thomas’ hospital medical school, graduating in 1949. After national service he held junior hospital jobs before moving to the London hospital. He eventually switched to Charing Cross medical school in London, remaining there until he retired in 1992. |
| At that point the health service researcher Iain Chalmers invited him to join the Cochrane Centre in Oxford as a consultant and to help establish the Cochrane Collaboration the following year. An international, not-for-profit network of more than 30,000 people, the Cochrane Collaboration prepares and maintains reviews of the effects of medical treatments, free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. | At that point the health service researcher Iain Chalmers invited him to join the Cochrane Centre in Oxford as a consultant and to help establish the Cochrane Collaboration the following year. An international, not-for-profit network of more than 30,000 people, the Cochrane Collaboration prepares and maintains reviews of the effects of medical treatments, free from commercial sponsorship and other conflicts of interest. |
| Herxheimer persuaded the organisation to take more seriously the adverse effects of drugs and other treatments. Aware that psychiatric drugs could worsen a patient, he was for many years an expert witness for people who found themselves in the criminal justice system, visiting defendants in prison well into his 80s. In a 2005 memorandum to the parliamentary select committee on health, he detailed how the drugs industry oversold the beneficial effects of its products while downplaying the harms. | Herxheimer persuaded the organisation to take more seriously the adverse effects of drugs and other treatments. Aware that psychiatric drugs could worsen a patient, he was for many years an expert witness for people who found themselves in the criminal justice system, visiting defendants in prison well into his 80s. In a 2005 memorandum to the parliamentary select committee on health, he detailed how the drugs industry oversold the beneficial effects of its products while downplaying the harms. |
| Small and impish, Herxheimer was a fountain of ideas and a great communicator, using words as precision tools. He punned in four languages, including Dutch and French; his Oxford colleagues tried in vain to ration him to two puns per lecture. Keen on plain English, he advised students to write “before” rather than “prior to”, noting that “the only correct use of this expression is in ‘the nuns preferred the prior to the abbot’”. He had no enemies outside big pharma, and was loved and respected by colleagues worldwide. | Small and impish, Herxheimer was a fountain of ideas and a great communicator, using words as precision tools. He punned in four languages, including Dutch and French; his Oxford colleagues tried in vain to ration him to two puns per lecture. Keen on plain English, he advised students to write “before” rather than “prior to”, noting that “the only correct use of this expression is in ‘the nuns preferred the prior to the abbot’”. He had no enemies outside big pharma, and was loved and respected by colleagues worldwide. |
| He is survived by his second wife, Christine Bernecker, a psychiatrist and analyst, whom he married in 1983; by his daughters Charlotte and Sophie, from his first marriage, to the textile designer Susan Collier, which ended in divorce; and by four grandchildren. | He is survived by his second wife, Christine Bernecker, a psychiatrist and analyst, whom he married in 1983; by his daughters Charlotte and Sophie, from his first marriage, to the textile designer Susan Collier, which ended in divorce; and by four grandchildren. |
| • Andrew Herxheimer, clinical pharmacologist, born 4 November 1925; died 21 February 2016 | • Andrew Herxheimer, clinical pharmacologist, born 4 November 1925; died 21 February 2016 |