It is with sadness that ACCP bids farewell to Roger Jelliffe, MD, FCP, who passed away peacefully at the age of 91 on Monday, June 22, 2020, in Pasadena, CA. Dr. Jelliffe was a long-time Fellow of ACCP and participated as a Faculty Speaker at the ACCP Annual Meeting, was a Poster Presenter and served on the Publications, Digital Learning and Innovations & Emerging Issues Committees.
He is best known for his passionate advocacy to use clinical pharmacology to personalize and individualize medication dosing for each patient, particularly in the context of a provider-patient relationship. His tireless commitment to this ideal profoundly affected the careers of many colleagues. Sharing his ideas in numerous publications and teaching in workshops around the world, Dr. Jelliffe was a true pioneer in the emerging fields of what are now known as pharmacometrics and precision medicine. With colleagues in his Laboratory of Applied Pharmacokinetics (LAPK), continually working since he founded it in 1973, he created the first widely used software tools for precision dosing, using sophisticated algorithms adapted from mathematics, statistics and engineering. Groundbreaking in so many ways, LAPK’s work in nonparametric methods remains particularly innovative.
In acknowledgement of Dr. Jelliffe’s contributions, ACCP was proud to create the Roger Jelliffe Individualized Therapy Award in 2018 to recognize scientists who have made significant contributions to the field of precision medicine. Dr. Jelliffe’s tremendous legacy will live on through this award, and the activities of his many trainees and colleagues.
Rest In Peace, Dr. Jelliffe.
