Honorees for the John Urquhart Memorial Lecture:

2018 : Professor John Weinman, Institute of Pharmaceutical Science in King’s College London, UK.

2017 : Professor Thomas Nevins, Division of Pediatric Nephrology, University of Minnesota, USA

2016 : Dr. Bernard Vrijens, AARDEX Group; University of Liège, Department of Biostatistics, Belgium

2015 : Dr. Ira Wilson, MD, MSc, Department of Health Services, Policy & Practice, Brown University School of Public Health, USA

2014 : Prof. Sabina de Geest, PhD, RN: University of Basel, Switzerland & KU Leuven, Belgium

2013 : Prof. Dr. Robert Vander Stichele: Heymans Institute of Pharmacology, University of Ghent, Department of Pharmacology, Belgium

2012 : Prof. Terrence Blaschke, Department of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California; Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences, University of California, San Francisco, California

2011 : Prof. Petra Denig, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands

2010 : Prof. Michel Burnier, Service of Nephrology and Hypertension, CHUV, Switzerland

2009 : Prof. Lars Osterberg, Department of Medicine, Stanford University, California, USA

About John Urquhart (April 24, 1934 – March 19, 2016)

John Urquhart was born in 1934 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His 50-year career focused on improving medical treatment through innovative pharmaceutical development and improved large-scale monitoring of drug actions.

A graduate of Harvard Medical School (1959), he held fellowships in physiology and obstetrics and interned in surgery at Massachussetts General Hospital. He was an investigator at the National Heart Institute at NIH, and held professorships in physiology at the University of Pittsburgh, and in biomedical engineering at the University of Southern California.

In 1971 John joined the ALZA Corporation, founded by Alejandro Zafaroni to advance medical treatment by developing new technologies to deliver drugs so as to enhance their efficacy and reduce side efects. As Chief Scientist and President of ALZA Research, John collaborated with talented colleagues to devise innovative dosage forms such as transdermal patches and controlled release oral products that became models for industry-wide development of safer and more efective pharmaceuticals. These products were the first to be labeled for rate of drug release rather than by drug content.

His next focus was on the need to improve treatment through enhanced compliance with drug regimens and better postmarketing surveillance of prescription drugs. In 1984 he and colleagues set up a team at Maastricht University in the Netherlands to develop methods to obtain complete, reliable and objective data on the beneficial and harmful actions of drugs in large populations. This group evolved into Maastricht’s Center for Pharmacoepidemiologic Research. John was appointed as the first professor of pharmacoepidemiology there. In 1985 he founded the APREX Corporation to develop electronically monitored pharmaceutical packaging to measure patient compliance with dosing regimens. APREX was acquired by the AARDEX Group and finally in 2012 by MWV Corporation. He remained associated with this entreprise in key reserach and executive positions.

John´s achievements are reflected in his authorship of over 100 published papers, 40 patents, and a co-authored book (Risk Watch : the Odds of Life). Other honors include : 1962 Upjohn award, The Endocrine Society (with F.E. Yates, A.L. Herbst, and D.W. Glenister) ; 14 th Bowditch Lecturer, American Physiological Society (1969) ; President, Biomedical Engineering Society (1976) ; Doctorate honoris causa, University of Utrecht ; John Urquhart Fellowship Program established by the Dutch Chapter of the International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology ; Distinguished Alumnus Award, Rice University ; Fellow, International Society for Pharmacoepidemiology ; Fellow, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh ; Fellow American Association for the Advancement.