Date: Tue, 27 Jul 1999 17:35:57 -0700

The "So Called" prestigious New England Journal Of Medicine (otherwise referred to as "THE BUY THAT STUDY JOURNAL") has lost two more staffers.

This after two others resigned this year over an aids study. Will the last one out please close the door. That would be you Marsha Devil! This is a HIGHLY ESTEEMED JOURNAL, BY WHOSE STANDARDS? READ ON: 7/26/99 The Boston Globe The owners of the highly esteemed New England Journal of Medicine announced Sunday night that they have fired the magazine's top editor after he balked at their using the journal's prestige to sell unrelated publications and products. The Massachusetts Medical Society, which owns the New England Journal said in a terse statement that it will sever its relationship with Dr. Jerome P. Kassirer, who won high praise during his eight years as editor-in-chief. His tenure will not officialy end for eight months, but Kassirer will go on a seven-month sabbatical beginning Sept. 1 and the journal is searching for a replacement.

"Control of the journal is slipping to the bean counters," said Dr. John T. Harrington, dean of Tufts Medical School, who two weeks ago resigned from the Medical Society's Publications Committee to protest the handling of the Kassirer case. "This is a spectacular example of money beating medicine. The controversy over the Medical Society's marketing of its publications and products dates back well over a decade, and mirrors one that has plagued its national counterpart, the American Medical Association. In a practice known as "branding " the society advertises its other publications for doctors and the public by saying they are produced by the publishers of the New England Journal of Medicine."

While that is technically accurate, journal editors say they resent that their hard-won trust is being used to peddle journals such as HealthNews and HeartWatch, which they do not control and whose quality and accuracy they cannot verify.