Time

Topic

0:11

Please provide a brief overview of your career and current position

 One of the principals of WHISCON

0:33

When did you first get involved with pharmacoepi?

Graduate student at Harvard- told about Boston Collaborative Health Program, needed a lead investigator (by Ken Rothman).

2:30

Please tell us about the early years of ISPE

3:00

Stan Edlavich’s idea to get everyone together- birth of the conference in pharmacoepidemiology. First attended the third meeting.  

3:47

Can you comment on the early forming years of ISPE?

Hugh Tilson was the visionary. His dream to create a formal society. 

4:14

What are your fondest memories of the ICPE meetings?

Not a career path- people chose to do it because they were interested in it.

5:06

Lots of arguments on methods and data. Very passionate.

5:40

Real “down-home” feel to it. Only a 100-120 people in attendance- intimate

6:11

Tell us about your role as ISPE President and the transition to a professional management organization

Early 90s- society needed a more formalized reporting structure, planning, decision-making, as it grew, so transition took place

7:41

Please tell us about your guiding principles during your tenure as ISPE President.  

Make decisions that involve the minimum number of layers of decision makers; make things simple; make sure there is access to important positions in the society; embrace the new diversity of people who were coming in. 

8:30

President’s role is to make sure the trains run on time.

8:54

How has ISPE impacted you professionally and personally?

9:00

The organizing principle of my professional career has been ISPE.

Inspirational and intellectually stimulating work on methods to study drug safety.

9:30

Continuity in membership- people a source of inspiration, validation, professional friendship. 

10:07

ISPE a meeting place for people on different sides of the table, metaphorically. 

10:50

Can you tell us about the Burroughs-Wellcome fellowship?

Hugh Tilson saw need for funding for PEists, overlooked by NIH, industry, academia; Burroughs-Wellcome funding was a central contribution to the field

15:03

What do you feel is ISPE’s greatest impact on the field?

Giving the field coherence- offering a forum for people to come together and talk about pharmaceutical product safety. 

15:32

Narrowness of focus- safety and management of risks of pharma/medical products- which is quite virtuous, and is the source of a lot of power.