Policy and Medicine

Bob Franks - Legislator and Advocate for Innovation (1951 - 2010)

This past weekend, Robert Franks, former US Congressman and New Jersey State Assemblyman passed away from a battle with cancer.  Bob was a young man 58 and will be remembered for his leadership with the Healthcare Institute of New Jersey.

I first met Bob in the summer of 1987, at the time he was in the New Jersey State Legislature and was placed in charge by State Senator Chuck Hardwick of the Republican efforts to take over the Assembly and State Senate. 

At the time no one gave them a chance and against all odds they won.   He worked tirelessly in the policital operation that at the time was based in the basement of his town house and the hot atic of a former school house (not the conditions often portrayed in the media).

He went on to serve four terms in Congress and ran for US Senate against John Corzine only loosing narrowly. 

He was very active in the resurgance of the New Jersey Republican party with the election of Chris Christie. 

He served as President of the Health Care Council from 2001 until his death protecting the life science industry of New Jersey and promotion innovation.

He always had amazing energy , and full of life.  He made a difference.

Washington Post

New York Times

Bio Statement

 

Memorial: Brian P. Russell, RPh, MBA (1958 – 2009) CME Czar

Long time leader in CME Brian P. Russell, RPh, MBA died on December 5^th at his home after a long fight with Pancreatic Cancer.  

 

During his work career he worked in industry, academia and commercial medical education.  Brian served twenty eight years in the medical education industry, most recently as director of medical education at Roche Laboratories, Inc.

 

From 1991 to 2006, Brian served in multiple jobs at Vox Medica Inc. and its subsidiaries including Executive VP and Principal Vox Medica Inc., President and Chief Compliance Officer of Institute for Continuing Health-care Education Inc., and President CoMed Communications, Inc.   Brian built Co-Med into a 110 person firm and secured seven separate accreditations.  At CoMed he also sat on the board of North American Association of Medical Communications and Education Companies (NAAMECC).

 

Prior to Vox for seven years at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science as Executive Director  of institutional extension services where he ran the Continuing Education Office and built it up from a one man office to a six person center for the university and coordinated a MBA program with Drexel. 

 

For seven years he was a writer for American Druggist Magazine, and previously served as an associate dean at the University Of Rhode Island College Of Pharmacy.

 

He leaves quite a legacy, with many of the leaders of CME having learned from his leadership at Vox, Co-Med and ICHE.    He set up the CME department at Roche ensuring that they met compliance standards and focused their funding on CME programs that made a difference.

 

He was a regular attendee at CME meetings and was regularly seen in the back of the room (can’t sit down  he had too much energy).  He always contributed thoughtful questions and was a strong advocate for collaboration between industry and CME providers.  

 

I first met Brian when he running CoMed, he was enthusiastic but also a realist, very much ensuring that the educational programs his group conducted were done with the utmost quality.   At one Alliance meeting in 2001, his group was giving 8 presentations and he was running from meeting to meeting, he was excited and I don’t think he would have it any other way.

 

As a competitor I was always impressed with the scientific rigor and logistical precision of his programs.  As the leader of a CME group within a pharmaceutical company, he was very focused on the latest educational design methods and outcome based education as opposed to didactic lectures.

We discussed at length the Roche-Genentech merger and he was truly looking forward to moving out to South San Francisco the new Roche-Genentech headquarters. He loved the climate and was looking forward to a change of lifestyle.  It is sad he didn't see that happen.

 

We had a lot of laughs together and I think many of us in CME will miss him.

 

A celebration service is set for him on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2009 from 6 to 8 P.M. at DALEY LIFE CELEBRATION STUDIO, 1518 Kings Hwy., Swedesboro NJ. For donation and burial information in Rhode Island:  www.lifecelebrationstudio.com.

 

Brian Russell References

 

Authored Articles

Alliance for CME Almanac

July 2005: Establishing an Internal Compliance Program to Manage Risk in Grant-Funded Continuing Medical Education

 

Press

Medical Meetings

December 1, 2005 NAAMECC Gets New Board

 

Medical Marketing and Media

February 1, 2007 Roche Hires Med Ed Czar

 

Speaking Engagements 

19th Annual Conference of the National Task Force on CME ...

October 23^rd 2008 Power Point

 

Speaker Award

While at the institute of Continuing Medical Education he received the Elite Speaker Award from the Center for Business Intelligence

 

Profile

LinkedIn Profile and Resume:  Brian P. Russell

 

Obituaries

 Philadelphia Inquire

Celebration Studio

 

We welcome additional tributes, just enter them in the comment section and follow the directions.

Memorial: Richard (Buzz) Goodstein, MD -- Founder of the Good Guys

On this thanksgiving we have a lot to be thankful about and one thing that I am personally thankful for is that I was able to know Richard (Buzz) Goodstein, MD.

Buzz passed away this weekend from a long battle with advanced prostate cancer.

Buzz was an innovator and educator who career covered academia, media and industry.

He was one of those people you meet and say to yourself he has lived a full life.  He served as a mentor and friend to numerous people, and was the founder of the “Good Guys” a virtual organization that has worked to disseminate information on early detection of prostate cancer.  The goal of the “Good Guys” was to change the test for prostate cancer from a straight PSA number to changes in PSA velocity which is has greater specificity than straight PSA.

I first met Buzz at a Global Alliance for CME meeting in 1999, at that time he was playing his Clarinet and speaking on the music of medicine.   Later we became friends when he would regularly drop by my office when he was visiting Washington DC.  He always had kind things to say and was always interested in how you were doing as a friend.

Through the good guys, Buzz has served as an inspiration to many cancer patients and those of us involved in medical education.  He fought an admirable fight against prostate cancer which he eventually lost.

He was an honorable man, and a first class gentleman.  Since his deaths I have received dozens of emails all extolling how important he was in so many people’s lives.   We all want to leave a legacy, and it is clear that Buzz is leaving more than just a legacy but a long list of “good guys”.

A little about his life:

Dr. Goodstein graduated summa cum laude and magnum cum laude respectively from Valley Forge Military Academy, Wayne, PA and from the Honors College of Michigan State University where he had joint majors in biological sciences and telecommunications while attending both schools on full music scholarship.

Buzz received his medical training at George Washington University in Washington DC, he then joined the Navy and worked on space flight medicine doing clinical research for NASA while assigned from the US Naval Aerospace Medicine School, on the effects of weightlessness and magnetic fields upon the Mercury/Gemini Program astronauts and new astronaut selection. After graduation from GWU, he completed his medical internship at E. Sparrow Hospital, Michigan State University (where he did his undergraduate), and then earned his wings as a graduate of the US Naval Flight Surgeon School in Pensacola, FL.  He served on active duty in the “Regular” US Navy as Lieutenant Commander for four years in the positions of senior flight surgeon and senior medical officer for various aviation combat squadrons.

After leaving the Navy he completed three years post-doctoral psychiatry residency training at Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH.  He was then invited to join the Dartmouth College Medical School faculty where he remained for seven more years.

He was then recruited to the Carrier Clinic Foundation, the neuropsychiatry teaching hospital of The University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey – Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, where he was Deputy Medical Director and Senior Vice President for Education.  For ten years he was in charge of all training/education for employees, and graduate students from 25 affiliated colleges.

While at UMDNJ, Dr. Goodstein was the originator, executive producer, and on-camera moderator of the popular live, weekly CME satellite TV series titled, MIND and BODY, which was broadcast on HIN/HSN and later PBS from 1984-1990 to over 1,000 hospitals and 100 universities in the US and Canada.  As a by-product he also introduced computerized medical education and clinical data tracking to the Carrier Clinic.

He was then recruited by Merck and Company to develop the Professional Information, Communications, and Education areas headquartered within the Medical and Scientific Affairs Division. 

At Merck one of the things he was most proud of was helped develop and lead The Urban Health Alliance Initiative (a minority health 501(c) 3 Foundation), the Men’s Health Initiative, and The Healthy Aging Initiative.  Dr. Goodstein became a member of the AMA-Industry National Task Force on CME in 1990.

Dr. Goodstien was an innovator and saw the value of the internet very early on.  After the sale of Medco, in 1995 Dr. Goodstien became one of the founding Senior Vice Presidents for Physicians’ Online in Tarrytown, NY.  In that role he created new medical internet products and personal computer initiatives for all clinical disciplines as well as built alliances with professional organizations and customers as platforms for the use of Physicians’ Online products.  Physicians’ Online was later purchased by WebMD.

In 1997 Dr. Goodstein was recruited as Vice President of Scientific Relations at Bayer Corporation, Pharmaceutical Division, USA.  He was asked to conceive, develop, and lead a clinical science division which eventually totaled ten departments (including the Bayer Institute for Healthcare Communications – a 501(c)3 foundation with CE/CME accreditation) encompassing 230 professional staff representing the information scientists, clinical medicine educators, health economists, innovation teams, and all 130 medical science liaisons at Bayer.

He retired in 2006 and shortly after that was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.    Buzz continued to work for two more years, finishing in January 2007.  During that time he created a small internet working group called the good guys which was dedicated to advancing information around prostate cancer. 

Buzz set up small group luncheons around the country with no strings attached, to teach executives and others about prostate cancer.  In the coming days we will include links to copies of the emails and articles he passed around.  If you are a man over 45 and have not had your PSA checked, please do every year, and at the same time track what that number is, if you see it moving up by more than 1 point, you may have a problem, and should get checked out.

Buzz had a statement he would make that in many ways defines his life.

"Think, understand, feel, respond, pay forward" - Buzz Goodstein

 

Buzz as a child playing his clarinet

Memorial: Frederic S. Wilson 1944 – 2009 CME Supporter and Activist

This week the CME community lost a close friend in Frederic Wilson.  At the age of 65 Fred passed away from complications resulting from a bone marrow transplant.   Fred was the Director of Medical Education for Procter and Gamble Pharmaceuticals from 1990 – 2009, he retired this past January.

 

Announcing his retirement he sent this note:  “After 39 years in the pharmaceutical industry, I’ve decided to pursue other interests for a while.  Although I’ll be happy to continue contributing to the defense of the industry’s vital role in continuing medical education, my efforts will no longer be under the auspices of Procter & Gamble after January 1, 2009.  My only regret will be the lesser opportunity to interact with you -- a privilege that has made all the difference.”

 

Fred was a leader in CME, he saw the value of collaboration as a way to enhance patient care.  In a 2003 Clinical Orthopedics and Related Research article titled: Ethical Collaboration in Continuing Medical Education Fred wrote:

 

“Collaboration between the pharmaceutical industry and CME providers can be expected to continue to produce educational activities and materials that enhance physicians to care for patients, without undue influence; that is, to not influence prescribers in any way less than the best interest of the patient.”

 

“When evaluating the collaboration between CME providers and the pharmaceutical industry, it is evident that the professional ethics of the research based companies and those of organized medicine are congruent.”

 

In addition to his duties at Procter and Gamble, Fred was also on the board of directors for the American Osteopathic Family Physicians Foundation and The Global Alliance for CME plus others.  For several years he chaired the American Medical Associations Taskforce on Provider Industry Collaboration.

 

I first became friends with Fred in 1998 where he supported CME programs we produced on Women’s Sexual Dysfunction, Atrial Fibrillation and Osteoporosis.

 

Thoughout the years, Fred was someone that I could go and ask questions about the history of our industry and throw out crazy ideas for programs.  He was also very good at correcting grammar which he did with every email, and document I sent him.

 

Fred wanted to do voiceovers and sometime around the year 2000, I used his talents to do a voice over from a program I was working on for someone else.   He read the script and his dark radio voice was excellent, but it was just funny how here was this totally strategic guy and his true ambition in life was to be a radio announcer.

He fought multiple sclerosis courageously.  To rid himself of that disease, five years ago he subjected himself to a stem cell transplant as part of a clinical trial.  When you would ask him about his health he would deflect the question stating it was not important, or you really don’t want to hear about it.

 

Last year at the announcement of his retirement, and during the time of the Taskforce several of us got together for one last good bye party.  Little did any of us know that would be the last time we would see Fred this side of heaven.  

 

Reading emails from Fred since his retirement, it reminded that I owe him a bottle of Bormore for offering us some advice and reviewing some of our programs, I have no idea what that is, but I will try to sneak in a bottle with me when I join him in heaven.

 

He was forever the optimist, with a rational belief that CME was not all there was, and in the end what really matters is your family and the legacy you leave behind.  When I was discouraged, he always offered sound advice.

 

He was always calm, always rational, a realist and always encouraging.

 

He leaves behind his wife Judith, six children, and nine grandchildren.

 

He will be sorely missed.

 

Memorial service is

Saturday October 24^th

Armstrong Methodist Church

Indian Hill, Ohio

 

Frederic S. Wilson

 

Journal Publications

Continuing medical education: ethical collaboration between sponsor and industry.

Clin Orthopaedics Related Research. 2003;412:33–37

 

Articles

Medical Meetings December 1, 2004:  Code Blue

Medical Meetings July 2003: No Turning Back

Medical Meetings July 1, 2002: Cracking the Code

Medical Meetings August 2000: More Than a Money Store

CME Briefing Spring 1998 FDA Issues New Guidance for Industry Supported CME

 

In encourage you to leave comments about Fred and his life as a living testiment to his kindness, and freindship.

 

Michael Bigelow, JD 1967 – 2009 (Pioneer in Corporate Transparency)

 

Eli Lilly Assistant General Counsel, Mike Bigelow, passed away this week from pancreatic cancer.  Mike was a young man, only 42 years old, he left behind a wife and three children, and he also left his mark on the world. 

Sometime in 2006, Mike submitted to the leadership at Eli Lilly that they should put out their grants and payments to physicians for all to see.  He considered that in reality they had nothing to hide.  At the time, this must have been considered a wild idea, but it worked, the leadership at Eli Lilly embraced it and put Mike in-charge of the project.  In the summer of 2007, Lilly launched its educational grants disclosure website.

Mike truly understood both the legal world and the political world.  Working on refinements for the Physician Payment Sunshine Act in 2008, and his work was largely responsible for Eli Lilly being the first pharmaceutical company to endorse the Act.

I had visited with Mike at conferences several times this year.  Mike’s response was always “you may be happy to be here, but I am really happy to be here.” 

At a meeting a couple of weeks ago, Mike leaned over, whispered to me a question, to ask some prosecutors who were presenting to see if they thought pharmaceutical companies did anything good.  They did not.

It is impressive that Mike lived life to the fullest even until the end.  He never quit and kept fighting.

His enthusiasm and dry humor will be missed.

Memorial contributions                

Mike had requested that memorial contributions be made to his children’s college education account. Please make any memorial checks payable to: CollegeChoice Advisor 529 Plan. They can be sent to: 12368 Sanderling Trace, Fishers, IN 46037.

Memorial

RX Compliance Report: Remembering Mike Bigelow

Indianapolis Star:  Mike Bigelow

Funeral Home Obituary:  Michael Patrick Bigelow

Articles Quoting Mike

The Wall Street Journal: Drug Maker Lilly Discloses Funding

The Hill: Eli Lilly Breaks with Drug Industry Over Doctor Payment Disclosure Bill

Medical Meetings: Rethinking the Lifeline

Medical Marketing and Media: Medical Education Report:  CME’s Open Gesture

Adverse Event Reporting News:  Lilly, Zimmer back transparency on M.D. perks

RX Compliance Report: Case Study Implementation of Eli Lilly’s Physician Payment Disclosure Initiative