Pioneering the Practice of Medicine
Change text size
Pioneering the Practice of Medicine: Dr. Jack Crary
With its mix of clinical activity and academics, MeritCare offers interesting – at times groundbreaking – research opportunities. A noted example comes from 1997, when the popular diet drug combination fen-phen came under fire.
The research was prompted when MeritCare cardiologist Dr. Jack Crary listened carefully to a MeritCare echocardiographic sonographer who had observed heart valve abnormalities in patients on fen-phen. Further review of data convinced Dr. Crary of the need to investigate. He realized that if the connection between fen-phen and valvular heart disease proved real, it could affect millions of people worldwide.
Dr. Crary called researchers at Mayo Clinic and they collaborated on a study that was published in the August 28, 1997, New England Journal of Medicine. On Sept. 15, 1997, the Food and Drug Administration took the unusual step of urging the drug makers to pull the drugs off the market – the companies agreed.
In the many articles and television programs that followed, including PBS's "Frontline," much credit went to Dr. Crary and his team. As Science News magazine said: "Individual health care providers observing individual patients triggered the events that eventually led to the drugs being yanked off the market."