Sharon K. Inouye, MD, MPH, an internationally recognized leader in internal medicine, geriatrics and aging research, has been named the next editor-in-chief of JAMA Internal Medicine.
Dr. Inouye is a Harvard Medical School professor of medicine and the Milton and Shirley F. Levy Family chair. She also directs the Aging Brian Center at the Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife in Boston.
Dr. Inouye’s research focuses on delirium and functional decline in hospitalized older adult patients. In addition to other active research projects, Dr. Inouye is the overall principal investigator of the Successful Aging after Elective Surgery (SAGES) study. The National Institute on Aging is funding that $13 million project on delirium and dementia.
Dr. Inouye served as an associate editor at JAMA Network Open and has followed JAMA Internal Medicine throughout her career—first as an early career physician, then as an educator and as a researcher. She views it as the top journal within internal medicine.
“I have a very long history with JAMA Internal Medicine, so the fact that I can step into this role as editor-in-chief carries so much meaning to me. I’m so excited that I can give back to the broader field of internal medicine,” said Dr. Inouye, an elected member of the National Academy of Medicine.
“I would like to provide a place that internists feel at home, a place they want to come and read,” she added. “I want to not only provide them the cutting-edge studies, but also the practical knowledge and pieces that are educational and interesting and exciting.”
Four C’s of content
Dr. Inouye said as she thought about what her priorities would be as editor-in-chief of JAMA Internal Medicine, she came up with a unifying framework that she calls the four C’s. They are the broad principles that she intends to center everything on:
- Clinical relevance.
- Clinical care advancement.
- Credibility, which involves providing trustworthy, high-quality evidence.
- Communication, which involves providing education and a sounding board for broad and diverse audiences of clinicians, trainees, researchers and the general public.
“These four C’s have been my principles through my whole career, and I want to bring them now to the journal,” Dr. Inouye said.
Relevant, exciting content
Dr. Inouye said she hopes to expand upon the excellent clinical content, policy pieces, research, commentaries and more that JAMA Internal Medicine already provides readers. She’s planning to begin adding podcasts to accompany articles so that time-strapped internists can access information in an on-the-go format. Dr. Inouye also aims to provide new content directed at the practicing general internist in a way that cuts across specialties and practice settings.
For example, articles could help internists answer questions they face in the ever-changing world for patients with differing needs:
- Who should get Paxlovid and when? How to handle drug interactions?
- How tightly should blood pressure be controlled in different patients?
- In the era of COVID-19, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), what do you do with the patient who presents with sore throat and respiratory symptoms?
- How is climate change impacting patients’ health and how can doctors help?
She envisions a feature where new clinical guidelines can be broken down and analyzed for practicing internists in a way that shows them what they need to take away from the guideline and how it applies to the various patient populations they serve.
Dr. Inouye also wants readers to feel the journal is their place, their home and reflects their voice.
“I want to hear what they like and dislike, what stimulates their thinking,” Dr. Inouye said.
Dr. Inouye will start in her new role July 1. She succeeds Rita F. Redberg, MD, who has served as editor-in-chief of JAMA Internal Medicine since 2009.
Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, MD, PhD, MAS, editor-in-chief of JAMA® and the JAMA Network™, said she looks forward to working with Dr. Inouye, whose “expertise, experience and vision for internal medicine research, clinical practice, and medical communications will be a tremendous asset to JAMA Internal Medicine authors and readers.”
