Jeremy Neil Anderson

Short abstract

Psychiatrist who became a leading advocate for evidence based health care

Jeremy Anderson, a founding member of the BMJ 's editorial board, was a man of broad interests, both professionally and personally. A psychiatrist, epidemiologist, health services researcher, and eloquent advocate for evidence based health care, he was also known for his eclectic tastes in music, poetry, art, and literature.

Jeremy was a citizen of three countries—the United Kingdom, where he was born and later returned to work and study; New Zealand, where he spent most of his childhood and studied medicine; and Australia, where he and his family moved in 1994.

It was in England that Jeremy's interest in health services research and epidemiology flourished. Under Professor Julian Leff, he managed the Team for the Assessment of Psychiatric Services (TAPS) study from 1986 to 1991, investigating the clinical outcomes of psychiatric hospital closures.

In 1991 Jeremy and his family returned to New Zealand, where he was appointed senior lecturer in the department of psychological medicine at the University of Otago, Dunedin, and helped establish the first psychiatric emergency service on the South Island.

Jeremy's interest in evidence based health care and clinical epidemiology developed during the early 1990s, and he served on the Cochrane Collaboration's international steering group from 1994 to 1996. From 1994 to 1998 he was director of adult psychiatry at Monash Medical Centre in Melbourne, where he drove major reforms.

Jeremy sat on the BMJ 's editorial board from 1996 to 2003, and was known as a lateral thinker. “He was without doubt one of the most valuable members of the board,” says the BMJ 's former editor, Dr Richard Smith. “He would tell us uncomfortable truths but always with a smile and a joke. Although an iconoclast, Jeremy was `business minded,' which was also very useful to us.”

He adds: “Jeremy always knew the best books to read, the best music to listen to, and the best restaurants to visit (even in New York).”

Jeremy also shared these passions with BMJ readers. When asked to contribute to a list of books to help medical students and doctors better understand the world, he suggested, among other things, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, by Edward S Herman and Noam Chomsky (BMJ 1997;315: 1712-7).

Figure 1.

In another piece, nominating music to accompany births or deaths, Jeremy described the arrival of his daughter, Zoe, after a long labour (BMJ 2000;321: 1577-9): “The scramble to the hospital allowed time only for a rummage in the glove compartment of our car, which provided a battered copy of Twenty Golden Country Greats as the sole musical accompaniment to the birth,” he wrote. “On a good day my wife acknowledges a sneaking regard for Tammy (`five husbands and 15 abdominal operations, honey') Wynette. So it could have been worse. The lyrics seemed appropriate (`sometimes it's hard to be a woman'), but the chorus left something to be desired (`stand by your man'). At least we didn't hit `D.I.V.O.R.C.E' until mother and daughter were well into recovery.

“It seems inevitable that my passing will be marked in similarly tasteful fashion—perhaps the immortal Peter Sellers' song, `They're Digging up Grandpa's Grave to Build a Sewer'? When I was a boy, my aunt, then a radio announcer, declined my request to play this tune on air. But that's another story...”

Jeremy's wicked wit was also evident when describing his ideal medical school (BMJ 2001;323: 1456-7). It would, he wrote, “produce graduates who are as comfortable in the shit as they are in the stars and understand that the pathology they observe in humanity is equally present in themselves.”

In 1998 Jeremy became founding director of his brainchild, the Centre for Clinical Effectiveness, at Monash University and the Southern Healthcare Network, which quickly developed in size and reputation.

Jeremy was appointed interim director of the Monash Institute of Health Services Research in December 2001, after the death of its foundation director, Professor Chris Silagy (obituary BMJ 2002;324: 53), and steered the institute through a difficult period. His disappointment at not being offered the institute's directorship was no secret. However, he was delighted to be appointed foundation professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of Melbourne in mid-2003.

His wife, Dr Heather Buchan, chief executive officer of the National Institute of Clinical Studies, said her husband's vision was to create a programme of epidemiology teaching and research skills training that would be internationally recognised. “He was looking to build a strong research base in the areas that most interested him—the implementation of research in clinical settings; consumer participation in health; and the influence of the information revolution on medicine.”

In May 2004, less than a year after starting the new job, Jeremy was diagnosed as having colon cancer. It had metastasised. He continued academic and clinical work until last November, scheduled around chemotherapy.

He died five days after his 52nd birthday. At the funeral, Associate Professor Sally Green, director of the Australian Cochrane Centre, said, “Delivering orations which made difficult concepts understandable, full of quotes from Bertrand Russell and images from the Museum of Modern Art; who could resist being inspired to try and improve their practice by this clever, quirky, charismatic leader of opinion and change?”

He leaves Heather and two children.

Jeremy Neil Anderson, foundation professor in epidemiology and biostatistics University of Melbourne, Australia (b Shawford, United Kingdom, 1953; q Auckland 1977; MSc, MD, FRANZCP), died from colon cancer on 23 February 2005.