The best editors get fired

The Lancet Volume 390, No. 10099, p1019, 9 September 2017 Richard HortonEmail the author Richard Horton Published: 09 September 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(17)32363-2 Unanticipated Outcomes: A Medical Memoir Jerome P Kassirer. 2017. Pp 172. US$ 20·00. ISBN 9780692808719 showArticle Info Summary Full Text Tables and Figures Jerry Kassirer was fired as Editor-in-Chief of The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 1999. Two decades later, he has written, in the guise of a memoir, a blistering attack on his former employer, the Massachusetts Medical Society. Revenge, it is often said, is a dish best served cold. Kassirer relives old battles and settles outstanding scores. He savages the present state of medicine and medical journals. And he offers a bleak view of the future for a profession he clearly loves. Unanticipated Outcomes: A Medical Memoir is a painful autoautopsy of a successful life brought down by the greed of small minds and the tripwire of personal foible.