LETTER
Tributes to Thomas Chalmers
Joseph Lau, MD
1 April 1996 | Volume 124 Issue 7 | Page 696
TO THE EDITOR:
The achievements of the late Thomas Clark Chalmers, MD, a clinician- scientist- teacher- administrator- entrepreneur, would easily consume several pages of this journal and would hardly begin to capture the richness and the profound influence of this remarkable man on the practice of modern clinical medicine. Tom Chalmers started his medical career in the mid-1940s as a clinician. He soon realized that too many mistakes were being made because conventional wisdom was often wrong and the facts to support it simply were not there. He then embarked on his legendary career in clinical research and along the way illuminated the path for many others.
Tom Chalmers' name is synonymous with randomized, controlled trial and meta-analysis, and many of his more than 400 publications dealt with these topics. Many of the medical advances discovered in the past several decades through the use of randomized, controlled trials can in large measure be attributed to his tireless advocacy. "Randomize the first patient" was his motto. Many of his friends and colleagues had the pleasure of his famous randomized wine tastings; inexpensive and expensive wines were randomly sampled, and tasters were blinded as to their origin. After finding out about his disease, he insisted that he be randomized in a clinical trial for the treatment of metastatic prostate cancer.
His often-cited article [1] on the importance of the type II error, published almost two decades ago, was the prelude to the wave of meta-analyses we now see. As a result of the insight that the reported "negative" results of many studies may simply be due to the lack of statistical power, he did one of the first meta-analyses in clinical medicine on the use of anticoagulant agents for acute myocardial infarction [2].
Perhaps his greatest achievement was his cultivation of the careers of countless young investigators. For those of us who had the fortune of working with him, he was a most generous and humble mentor. Tom Chalmers' legacy and influence extend beyond medicine. The next time when you fly, take a deep breath; he was the Chairman on the Committee on Airline Cabin Air Quality between 1985 and 1986.
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Author and Article Information
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New England Medical Center; Boston, MA 02111
1. Friedman J, Chalmers TC, Smith H Jr, Kuebler RR. The importance of ß, type II error and sample size in the design and interpretation of the randomized control trial. N Engl J Med. 1978; 299:690-4.
2. Chalmers TC, Matta RJ, Smith H Jr, Kunzler AM. Evidence favoring the use of anticoagulants in the hospital phase of acute myocardial infarction. N Engl J Med. 1977; 297:1091-6.
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