The evolving role of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology and its contributions to the discipline

Abstract

This issue of the Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, the official publication of the American College of Clinical Pharmacology, represents my final effort as its Editor-in-Chief for the past 5 years. Reflecting on the discipline, Clinical Pharmacology continues to evolve at an accelerating pace. Papers published in the Journal have in the past and continue to reflect advances in the discipline. Concepts published only 5 years ago not unexpectedly are incorporated into today's clinical trial protocols and are often no longer perceived as innovative contributions to the discipline. I am confident that this evolution will continue into the future under the leadership of the incoming Editor-in-Chief, Dr. Joseph Bertino. The Journal has changed considerably over the past 5 years. Review articles are appearing more often, while maintaining the majority of its content as original studies on human pharmacological advances, both pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic. We have had the opportunity to publish important supplements related to the growth of pharmacometrics,1 and to revisit the confounding impact of renal impairment on optimization of drug therapy.2 There is an increasing presence of drug studies from the pediatric cohort and of results from patient investigations, for whom new and improved drug treatment strategies continue to be developed. Ultimately, these kinds of papers should impact dramatically on optimization of therapeutics. It is reassuring to see the increasing inclusion of genetic and other biomarker data as parameters that may further address the ultimate goal of individualized drug therapy. Evolution of population pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic modeling strategies should allow for improved paradigms for drug treatment of high risk populations, especially where sample access is considerably limited. The increasing success of biological therapies will pose unique challenges to clinical pharmacologists, and provide substantial opportunities for innovation in clinical pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic clinical trials. Submissions of manuscripts to the Journal for consideration continue to increase and now exceed 500 yearly, making it much more difficult to select among the many excellent papers for the published content of monthly issues, while reflecting the diversity of the discipline. At this point it is essential to thank my Associate Editors, Drs. Hartmut Derendorf and Michael Reed for their wise counsel, my Editorial Board for its thorough and insightful peer review of the many manuscripts assigned to them, and many guest reviewers for manuscripts where content is reflecting areas of growth and change in the discipline. Of course, all of these efforts were orchestrated via the outstanding efforts of our Managing Editor, Ms. Marjory Spraycar, and Assistant Managing Editor, Ms. Elizabeth Marshall. Our Journal remains a widely read and cited source of knowledge directed at the improvement of patient quality of life when drug therapies are chosen as interventions to minimize consequences of pathological processes. I am grateful to all for having been offered the opportunity to contribute to such a laudable goal.