Drummond Rennie

Drummond Rennie
Rennie in 2012
Born
Ian Drummond Brownlee Rennie

(1936-01-31)January 31, 1936
Leeds, England
DiedSeptember 12, 2025(2025-09-12) (aged 89)
Occupations
Board member ofWorld Association of Medical Editors
Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials
Spouse(s)
Silvia Nussio
(m. 1958; div. 1984)

Deborah Peltzman
(m. 1992)
Children2
AwardsAAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility (2008)
Master of the American College of Physicians (2005)
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Cambridge
King's College London GKT School of Medical Education (M.D.)
Academic work
DisciplineNephrologist, physiologist
Sub-disciplineHigh altitude physiology
InstitutionsUniversity of California, San Francisco

Ian Drummond Brownlee Rennie (January 31, 1936 – September 12, 2025) was an American nephrologist and high altitude physiologist who was a contributing deputy editor of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA)[1] and an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.[2][3]

Rennie was an editor of JAMAevidence, a project for education related to evidence-based medicine sponsored by the American Medical Association.[4][5] He was known for involvement in reform of scientific publishing and for advocating improvements in reporting standards for clinical trials.[6] He was the director of the first seven International Congresses on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication, which he also helped to develop along with JAMA.[2]

In 2008, the American Association for the Advancement of Science awarded him its Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility.[7]

Background

Rennie was born on January 31, 1936, near Leeds in Yorkshire.[8][3] He was a dual British-American citizen of Scottish and Danish American heritage.[8][9]

Rennie married Silvia Nussio of Switzerland in 1958, with whom he had two children.[3] They divorced in 1984, but maintained a friendship.[3][10] He later married data scientist Deborah Peltzman in 1992, who survives him.[3]

Rennie had physical health problems for some years until his death.[11] He died from a stroke in Medford, Oregon, on September 12, 2025, at the age of 89.[9][10][12]

Career

Rennie attended Cambridge University and received his M.D. from Guy's Hospital Medical School.[2] He became an editor at The New England Journal of Medicine in 1977 and later moved to The Journal of the American Medical Association.[13] He described his first contact with serious scientific misconduct in publishing as arising less than four months into his editorship.[14]

He organized the International Congress on Peer Review and Biomedical Publication (often known as the Peer Review Congress) for several years from 1989, a project he launched after receiving JAMA's support for the effort in 1986.[13]

Along with Lisa Bero, Rennie served as the co-director of the San Francisco Cochrane Center, a predecessor institution to the United States Cochrane Center, which is a component of the international Cochrane Collaboration.[2][15] He was president of the World Association of Medical Editors and a founding member of several efforts to improve and standardize the reporting of clinical trial data, most notably the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) project.[2]

Awards and honors

Rennie was awarded a Mastership of the American College of Physicians in 2005.[16] He received the 2008 AAAS Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility, cited "for his career-long efforts to promote integrity in scientific research and publishing", recognizing "his outspoken advocacy for the freedom of scientists to publish in the face of efforts to suppress their research."[7]

References

  1. ^ "JAMA Editorial Staff". JAMA. 310 (16): 1647–1648. October 23, 2013. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.5378. ISSN 0098-7484.
  2. ^ a b c d e "Drummond Rennie profile". University of California, San Francisco. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  3. ^ a b c d e Warren, Penny (October 10, 2025). "Drummond Rennie obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved October 10, 2025.
  4. ^ "Editors and Authors". JAMAevidence. Retrieved June 19, 2015.
  5. ^ Walden, Rachel R. (2010). "JAMAevidence". Journal of the Medical Library Association. 98 (1): 93. doi:10.3163/1536-5050.98.1.026. ISSN 1536-5050. PMC 2801961.
  6. ^ Smith, Richard (September 22, 2001). "Medical editor lambasts journals and editors". BMJ. PMC 1121229.
  7. ^ a b "2008 Award for Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Recipient". American Association for the Advancement of Science. Retrieved June 15, 2015.
  8. ^ a b Flanagin, Annette; Godlee, Fiona; Goodman, Steven N.; Gunsalus, C. K.; Ioannidis, John P. A.; Knoll, Elizabeth (September 19, 2025). "Remembering Drummond Rennie—Champion of Integrity in Science and Scientific Publication". JAMA. doi:10.1001/jama.2025.18924. ISSN 0098-7484. Retrieved September 20, 2025.
  9. ^ a b Thornton, Jacqui (September 17, 2025). "Drummond Rennie: Tributes are paid to "prophet of peer review" after his death at 89". BMJ. 390 r1957. doi:10.1136/bmj.r1957. ISSN 1756-1833. PMID 40962409. Retrieved September 17, 2025.
  10. ^ a b McLellan, Faith (October 11, 2025). "Drummond Rennie". The Lancet. 406 (10512): 1556. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(25)02027-6. ISSN 0140-6736. Retrieved October 12, 2025.
  11. ^ Gøtzsche, Peter C. (October 2, 2025). "A Giant in Medicine: Tribute to Drummond Rennie". Brownstone Institute. Retrieved October 4, 2025.  This article incorporates text from this source, which is by Peter C. Gøtzsche available under the CC BY 4.0 license.
  12. ^ "Dr. Drummond Rennie Obituary September 12, 2025". Stephens Family Chapel. September 12, 2025. Retrieved September 18, 2025 – via Legacy.com.
  13. ^ a b "ANNUAL LECTURE 2014: Presented by Dr Drummond Rennie". Equator Network. Retrieved May 6, 2015.
  14. ^ Rennie, Drummond (June 1, 2010). "Integrity in Scientific Publishing". Health Services Research. 45 (3): 885–896. doi:10.1111/j.1475-6773.2010.01088.x. ISSN 0017-9124. PMC 2875766. PMID 20337732.
  15. ^ University of California San Francisco Magazine. University Publications, University of California, San Francisco, Department of Public Affairs. 1994. p. 6.
  16. ^ Physicians, American. "ACP announces new Masters and service awardees". acpinternist.org. Archived from the original on June 19, 2015. Retrieved June 19, 2015.