DIA today announced the appointment of J Rick Turner, PhD, Senior Scientific Director, Cardiac Safety Services, Quintiles, as new editor-in-chief of the Drug Information Journal, the official peer-reviewed journal of DIA.
Since its inception, the Drug Information Journal has been largely focused on drugs. Dr Turner intends to broaden its scope by publishing articles related to some new and hot topics including medical devices and medical device/drug combination products, companion diagnostics, and integrated pharmaceutical medicine, all with a focus on regulatory science.
“Our ultimate goal is to take care of patients, and while pharmaceutical medicine remains extremely important, the convergence of several lines of medical products plays a very large and potentially increasing role in improving human health in general,” says Dr Turner. “I want to get much more input from all stakeholders so that the Drug Information Journal sits at the top of everyone’s must-read list.”
Dr Turner is an experimental research scientist, clinical trialist, and author. Prior to joining Quintiles, He was a clinical submissions scientist at GlaxoSmithKline and president and chief scientific officer at Turner Medical Communications LLC. He has been published in numerous pharmaceutical professional journals and peer-reviewed publications, including the American Heart Journal and Journal for Clinical Studies, and recently authored the second edition of New Drug Development: An Introduction to Clinical Trials (Springer Science, 2010). In 2003, he was a joint recipient of the American Journal of Nursing’s “Book of the Year” Award for Health & Behavior in Childhood & Adolescence (Springer, 2002).
Among other honours, Dr Turner was awarded the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychophysiology from The Society for Psychophysiological Research and the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contributions to Psychosomatic Medicine from The American Psychosomatic Society. He currently holds appointments as Senior Fellow, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest and Affiliate Clinical Associate Professor, University of Florida College of Pharmacy.