image: Outgoing Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine view more
Credit: I. Ralph Edwards
Amsterdam, May 22, 2023 – The International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine (JRSM) would like to announce that Editors-in-Chief I. Ralph Edwards, Hon DSc (University of Benin, Nigeria), MBChB, MRCS, FRCP(Lond), FRACP, FRCP (Edin), and Marie Lindquist, MSc, PhD, Hon FRCP (Lond), both of the Uppsala Monitoring Centre (retired), Gothenburg, Sweden, have decided to step down from their roles. Publisher IOS Press wishes to recognize their many significant contributions to the publication since their leadership of the editorial board began in 2018 and to the field in general.
Since its launch in 1990, JRSM’s guiding principles have included the presentation of data and research that specifically seeks to evaluate the evidence for the right balance of effectiveness/benefit against risk/harm for clinical treatments used in everyday practice. “There are very few journals that can claim this as one of their primary aims. We have encouraged greater consideration of the evidence base on which treatment and management will achieve the best short- and long-term overall outcomes for patients,” explained Prof. Edwards. “After some long deliberation, I have decided, with much sadness, that I should relinquish my post as Editor-in-Chief of this unique journal.” Dr. Lindquist echoes this sentiment. “We are confident that the journal will continue to develop and flourish under the leadership of the eminent Liliya Eugenevna Ziganshina, and hope that she will enjoy the challenge as much as we have done.”
Prof. Edwards has enjoyed a long and illustrious career. He has held professorial positions in general medicine and clinical pharmacology in Zimbabwe, New Zealand, and Sweden. Most notably, he was Director and Medical Advisor of the Uppsala Monitoring Centre (UMC) from 1990-2009. The UMC in its role as the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring is responsible for the technical support to all WHO-supported national drug safety monitoring programs worldwide. The UMC was the first to develop data mining in pharmacovigilance and risk-benefit analysis. Prof. Edwards was the first president of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance (ISoP) as it developed from the European Society of Pharmacovigilance (ESoP), of which he was a founding member. He has written/co-written over 400 scientific papers and has contributed to numerous books.
Dr. Lindquist joined UMC in 1979, and the culmination of her four-decades of service was serving as the center’s second full-time director from 2009 to 2020. She is widely recognized for her instrumental role in driving the center’s growth, both in size as an organization and in stature as a leading voice for global patient safety. She has published many scientific papers in the areas of pharmacovigilance, signal detection, data mining, data management & quality, medical and drug terminologies and classifications. She oversaw the UMC scientific research program and successfully led the development of novel tools and methods for international monitoring of vaccine and drug safety.
“It has been an honor to follow in the footsteps of Founding Editor Graham Dukes and former Editor-in-Chief Christopher van Boxtel, and we are much heartened to see that with the unfailing support of the publisher, the journal has greater global recognition, receives more papers from many countries, and enjoys a broader readership,” commented Prof. Edwards and Dr. Lindquist.
“It is with great sadness that we say farewell to Ralph and Marie, whose vision and tireless work on behalf of the journal have contributed so much to its growth and ongoing success. Working in close collaboration with Journal Managers Marion Lilley and Axana Scherbeijn, their constant dedication, enthusiasm, and team spirit helped shape the journal,” said Dr. Einar Fredriksson, founder and director of IOS Press. “They will certainly be missed by the IOS Press family. At the same time, we would like to welcome Liliya Eugenevna Ziganshina.”
Newly appointed Editor-in-Chief Liliya Eugenevna Ziganshina, MD, PhD, DSci, has been a JRSM Editorial Board member since 2003 and an Associate Editor since 2020.
Prof. Ziganshina is currently the Head of the Centre for Knowledge Translation at the Russian Medical Academy for Continuing Professional Education (RMANPO), Moscow, Russian Federation, and holds the positions of Director of Cochrane Russia and professor of epidemiology. She also contributes as a professor of pharmacology at Kazan Federal University and at the RUDN University, Moscow. In 2018, she joined the European Advisory Committee on Health Research (EACHR). Her work has focused on health priorities-oriented research in clinical pharmacology, drug utilization, economic evaluations, and Cochrane reviews. She is also a member of the WHO expert advisory panel on drug evaluation, moderator of the Russian-language electronic discussion forum on essential medicines – E-Lek (since 2003), and Cochrane trainer for the WHO Evidence-informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Europe (since 2017).
“It is a unique privilege and enormous responsibility for me to follow in the tradition of the outstanding team of JRSM editors: Graham, Chris, Ralph and Marie,” said Prof. Ziganshina. “The incredibly infectious commitment to safety of interventions in health, particularly drug interventions, makes the journal even more important in the current environment of more and more health technologies with fast-track decisions, approvals, and implementations with less and less robust research evidence. Within the new challenges of emerging infections, pandemics, health emergencies and crises with the flooding of mis- and disinformation, JRSM keeps providing the global health community with the unique opportunity to publish and contribute to more safety in medicine for better health of all.”