Hershel M. Jick (born December 1, 1931) is an American medical researcher and associate professor of medicine at

Boston University School of Medicine The Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, formerly the Boston University School of Medicine, is one of the graduate schools of Boston University. Founded in 1848, the medical school was the first institution in the world ...

, where he was formerly the director of the Boston Collaborative Drug Surveillance Program.

Education

Jick graduated from

Harvard Medical School Harvard Medical School (HMS) is the graduate medical school of Harvard University and is located in the Longwood Medical Area of Boston, Massachusetts. Founded in 1782, HMS is one of the oldest medical schools in the United States and is consi ...

in 1956 and completed an internal medicine residency and clinical pharmacology fellowship.

Career

Jick is known for researching the negative and positive effects of pharmaceutical drugs. A 1977 study by him and his assistant Jane Porter reported that no more than one patient per 3,600 died because of incorrect drug prescriptions. The "Porter–Jick study" was mentioned in the

Hulu Hulu () is an American subscription streaming service majority-owned by The Walt Disney Company, with Comcast's NBCUniversal holding a minority stake. It was launched on October 29, 2007 and it offers a library of films and television serie ...

miniseries ''Dopesick'' and Jick was portrayed by theatre actor

Mark Jacoby Mark Jacoby (born May 21, 1947) is an American musical theatre performer. He has achieved fame from his leading roles on Broadway theatre, Broadway in ''Show Boat'', ''The Phantom of the Opera (1986 musical), The Phantom of the Opera'' and ''Ra ...

. In 1980, Jick and Porter published the letter "

Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics "Addiction Rare in Patients Treated with Narcotics" is the title of a letter to the editor written by Jane Porter and Hershel Jick and published in the January 10, 1980, issue of ''The New England Journal of Medicine''. The letter analyzed data on p ...

", which has been cited to argue that

opioid Opioids are substances that act on opioid receptors to produce morphine-like effects. Medically they are primarily used for pain relief, including anesthesia. Other medical uses include suppression of diarrhea, replacement therapy for opioid us ...

s are rarely addictive. Jick has said that this study had multiple limitations, such as that it only pertained to patients in the hospital, and did not assess the risk of addiction when opioids were prescribed in outpatient settings. Outside of medicine, Jick is the author of the book ''A Listener's Guide to Mozart's Music''.

References

External links

Faculty profile
Boston University faculty Physicians from Massachusetts Living people Harvard Medical School alumni 1931 births {{US-physician-stub