What does The Lancet’s 200th anniversary mean?

Members of The Lancet’s International Advisory Board and staff members reflect on 200 years of The Lancet and talk about what it means to them.

This podcast contains reflections from:

Chris Murray
Joy Lawn
Duc Le
Giuseppe Remuzzi
Helena Wang
Lan-Lan Smith
Irene Agyepong
Astrid James
Jie Qiao
Onisillos Sekkides
Anthony Costello
Peter Hayward
Rita Giacaman
Samer Jabbour
Robert Beaglehole

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Transcript

This transcript was automatically generated using speech recognition technology and may differ from the original audio. In citing or otherwise referring to the contents of this podcast, please ensure that you are quoting the recorded audio rather than this transcript.

Hello, welcome to The Lancet Voice. I'm Gavin Cleaver. It's January 2023 and we're very pleased to have you with us. It's The Lancet's 200th birthday in 2023. We're making quite the fuss about it if you joined us for the last episode. You'll have heard me, and Jess and me, talking to Richard Horton about the 200th anniversary and what it means, and what we've got planned for the rest of the year.

We thought this time around, we'd throw the floor open to members of the Lancet's International Advisory Board, and to long term members of Lancet staff, all being asked just one question. What does the Lancet's 200th anniversary mean? Which is also handily the title of this podcast, so you don't forget it.

You're going to hear a lot of voices over the next half an hour, including Joy Lorne, Anthony Costello, and Deputy Editor of the Lancet Astrid James. But first, we're going to hear from Professor Chris Murray, Director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, and a member of the Lancet's International Advisory Board.

Happy! Or say to the Lancet at 200 years, and I think all of us in global health have known for a long time, the Lancet is the most important medical journal in the world. And now everyone knows this because the impact factor in the last year has become the number one impact factor. So not just for global health, but for all medical science.

And I think that 200 year journey of the Lancet and its impact goes well beyond being the most important scientific journal. It's that the Lancet has, under Richard Horton's leadership, Over the last more than, I guess we're running up on 25 years has made the Lancet an activist journal. And I think a lot of people thought that was sort of an oxymoron.

How can you be a scientific journal at the top of the field and an activist journal trying to be a champion for change, improving health, improving human conditions around the world. It's happened and it's not just the Lancet weekly, but it's the whole Lancet family. And I think we. At least personally, I expect that The Lancet is going to continue this unique role in the future of bringing the best science to bear on things that really matter for humanity.

Now, sometimes there's critique of this approach of being an activist journal, but I think you should not pay attention to that critique because you are doing something that's really impactful. It's changing the way lots of governments and other actors think about issues and that's a unique position to be in.

So congratulations on 200 years. I hope we will see the Lancet in this incredibly important role for many years to come. Professor Joy Lorne from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Congratulations, Lancet, 200 years old in 2023. Two centuries of being, yes, a leading medical journal, yes.

Also, has Richard Horton underlined about Thomas Wakeley set up to change ideas. So not just impact in your journal citation, but true impact for things that matter. And I particularly want to salute you for two decades. Of leading change for global health around the world, looking at the themes that you have highlighted for the years ahead and to focus on this year, important global challenges, but also opportunities and need for both evidence and evidence implementation, global climate change.

And I also want to underline where your global health journey started with newborn child and adolescent health. Here we are in 2023, we still have almost 10 million women, children, newborns, and stillbirths dying. And it is because of Lancet that 2. 4 million newborns are on the agenda, that we have an SDG, that we have momentum.

More than 90 countries are now acting on those targets with evidence and with better data. I want to underline another two, almost 2 million stillbirths. Two series in Lancet that have really brought that to the fore, Lancet's campaign on bringing stillbirths out of the shadows, your first Elsevier campaign in 2016.

And yet this is something where we have numbers, we have evidence, and we still have invisibility. Evidence is not enough. We also need leadership. I want to thank Lancet for the way you have done that, and I want to really salute your commitment to bringing Also, women leadership and addressing racial inequalities in global health and in global health publishing.

I look forward to the years ahead. We will not be here two centuries from now, but I hope Luncet will and presumably Richard will not be the editor then. I hope by then. There will be a woman and someone from the global South that there will be more evidence, but also more real change for where it matters most.

It's such a privilege to be involved with you and thank you for what you do. My name is Duc Le. I'm originally from Vietnam. I came to London to do my PhD in the year 2000 and naturalized as a British citizen in 2005 during my postdoc. I joined the Lancet in 2014 and my current role is Senior Executive Editor looking after the Lancet Regional Health Initiative.

Lancet was named metaphorically as a surgical knife to cut out the dross and corruptions in medical and health institutions and inequalities in the wider societies. And indeed, it is a sharp knife. In its 200 years of history, publications in the Lancet journals have resulted in transformative changes, big and small, across all sectors from medical practices to health system, from national policies to global equity of universal healthcare, and more.

The world is in flux. Healthcare is underfunded and overloaded. Severe weather events are recurring. Politics is in turmoil. Discriminations are structural. Modern life takes a toll on people's mental health. The lancet's knife challenges them all. In Vietnamese, there is a saying, literally meaning, a sharp knife cannot cut its own handle.

Figuratively, it means no matter how brilliant a person is to the outside world, In their family, as a parent, they cannot teach their own children. Can the Lancet identify and tackle its own problem? I believe it can. I'm proud to work with such a diverse team of brilliantly minded Lancet Regional Health Editors who are based in Beijing, Sydney, Shanghai, Chennai, Munich.

Barcelona, Rio de Janeiro, San Diego, who handle their journals with their own knowledge and perspectives and help shape the Lancet family as a whole. For me, that's a step in the right direction of our own transformation. Hello everyone, I am Beppe Lemuzzi, Professor of Nephrology at the University of Milan and actually Director of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research.

very much. I must tell you that over the years I've worked with many journals. I've been associate editor of the American Journal of Nephrology and a member of the editorial board of many other journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine. I'm also on the International Advisory Board of the Lancet, so I'm well positioned to understand how the Lancet is different from all other journals out there, and why the Lancet is unique in my view.

The Lancet is unique because of a unique vision, a vision that connects the entire world and is not afraid to take on great problems that face humanity. The Lancet doesn't leave anyone behind. Not those who suffer because they don't have universal health coverage. Not those who are dealing with mental health issues, for example.

As you know better than me. All of this is possible because the Lancet is animated by a driving force. And that driving force is Richard Ordon, the Lancet editor. He is the most innovative, creative, intelligent and determined person I have ever met, who pursued his goal with the greatest conviction. I never encountered a person like him.

And this is this attitude is literally infectious. He passes it on the people around him with unbelievable enthusiasm. The results that the Lancet has obtained with this philosophy go well beyond science. They involve politics, particularly the politics of healthcare. Scientists must be involved in politics.

Not party politics, but the policy of healthcare and the Lancet is really, actually the voice of those scientists and of people who do not have a voice. To give just one example, the Lancet was the first journal in 2020 That were doctors and readers about the looming catastrophe we faced 15 days before the WHO did.

Those who read the famous article by Richard Kao on 13th of January and who took it seriously were able to take care of their patients who went on to recover. That's just one example. of some of the extraordinary planetary success that the Lancet has made possible.

Hello, I'm Helena Wang, the Asia Executive Editor of the Lancet. I'm really proud to be the first China based editor for the Lancet, and I joined the Lancet's Beijing office in March 2010. During the past decade, our China office has expanded from Beijing to Shanghai and Shenzhen. Now we have 10 Chinese colleagues overall working in different departments for the Lancet group in China.

I think the 200th anniversary of the Lancet provides us a great opportunity to reflect on health, medicine, and our society. The world and China benefit when we can exchange knowledge and collaborate closely together to face global health challenges. I'm sure the Lancet platform will continue to serve this well.

I believe in the next 200 years, the Lancet should take much more responsibilities to decolonize global health, advance racial and ethnic equity in health, and enhance global collaborations in research and health. There is also a famous Chinese philosophy about the unity of knowledge and action. which is called Zhixing Heyi in Chinese.

The 200th anniversary of the Lancet also means for us to bridge the gap between knowledge and action so that we can maximize the value of medical research for the benefits of our whole society.

Hello, I'm Dr. Lan Lan Smith, editor in chief of The Lancet Hematology. I've been with The Lancet Group for over a decade now, starting as a senior editor at The Lancet Oncology, before becoming the founding editor of The Lancet Hematology. We are coming up to our 10 year anniversary, and it's been a great experience for me to launch a journal that has a strong clinical vision and purpose for the hematology community within the framework of the wider Lancet group.

It's truly amazing how much the Lancet group has grown since I joined. We were very much paper based at the time, with every manuscript printed out, reading them together in one room over lunch. Now it's all done virtually, and we have editors based in many countries all around the world, which is great for giving us a much broader perspective.

As one of the co chairs of the Lancet Gender and Diversity Task Force, I'm particularly proud of the Lancet Women's Special Issue on Advancing Women in Science, Medicine, and Global Health, and our role in continuing that important. Happy 200th Anniversary, Lancet. Hello, my name is Irina Jepul, and I'm currently a trainer and researcher.

in the Faculty of Public Health of the Ghana College of Physicians and said, The 200th anniversary of the Lancet reminds me of one of my favorite books. We all have things we do purely for the pleasure and love of doing rather than because we must. For me, reading and English literature fall in this class.

And among my favorites that have stood the test of time as a favorite is Middlemarch by George Eliot, Marian Evans. And when I like a book, I read and re read it over time. Middlemarch was written between 1869 and 1870 and completed in 1871, almost 50 years after The Lancet was founded in 1823. One of the central characters in this great novel, treated with the unique sensitivity and expertise that George Eliot has, For bringing unforgettable characters to life is Tertius Lydgate, an intelligent and promising young doctor, with the love of a born scientist for his work and an ambition to make revolutionary medical discoveries.

Not surprisingly, there are few references to the Lancet in this book. Middlemarch is fiction, the Lancet is science. Both have in common that they are about people and have endured and continue to be read by many with appreciation in their different ways. I hope 100 years from now, both these greats will continue to shine and tarnish by time.

My name is Astrid James, and I'm the Lancet's Deputy Editor. To me, the 200th anniversary of the Lancet is a hugely proud moment in time, and it also marks half my life. I've worked for the Lancet for 30 years and been Deputy Editor working with Richard Horton and so many other wonderful colleagues. It's been a privilege and an honour, and I couldn't have hoped for a more rewarding and also enjoyable career.

I was one of a small team of just 11 staff when I joined in 1993, and I've watched with some awe as we grew and expanded with new journals and new staff based all over the world. We've become a truly global organisation with editors in the US, Brazil, China, Australia, the UK and Europe, and with Lancet journals launched from all corners of the world.

In terms of impact, it's been a rollercoaster, moving from one journal to 24 now, covering many medical specialties and geographical regions. And now in our Lancet itself has reached an impact factor of 200 and taken the top spot in the general medical journal category. That's taken some doing, but it isn't accidental or a result of publishing the most cited COVID content, although that has helped.

We've achieved our top impact factor spots across many specialties as part of an organized, far reaching strategy, and that's something to be celebrated. We've made a difference to people's health all over the world, highlighting inequities in access to health care. championing neglected diseases, putting human rights at the forefront of policy, as well as publishing the best research in all areas of medicine.

For me, knowing that we're a key part of research, a key part of medical education, and also a leading voice in medical policy, makes our 200th anniversary especially meaningful. I'm so proud to be part of that achievement, along with many superbly talented colleagues. past and present. Looking ahead, one thing's certain, the Lancet team with its passion, foresight, and knowledge will continue to drive medical research forwards, and above all, improve the lives of people everywhere.

Hello, my name is Jieqiao, and as a president of Peking University Health Science Center in China, it is an honor to add my voice to the chorus celebrating the 200th And the rosary of the lung set. The lung set has always been a window to light. Light in the medical community, and it's a journey in the last 200 years is truly particular as one of the worst old days.

And most Tish reviewed medical journals or lung cell has established countless milestone. The L cell is so much more than just that medical journal. It has always been a barrier and the defendants of truth, seeing how a tremendous independent and inclusive to fulfill an academic mission, regardless of circumstance, has been a consistent source of inspiration for generations of researchers and policymakers around the world.

As a Chinese clinician obstetrics and gynecology and reduction, as well as an administrator at the Peking University Health Science Center, I'm very grateful to the Lancet for its attention to the health and well being of Chinese people who account for about 18 percent of the world's total population.

It's actually in recent years, the Lancet has provided data China with a great platform for dynamic exchanging. With major topics such as maternal and child health, urban development and health, the population aging, as well as evidence based medicine and medical device research and development. More importantly, it allows us to demonstrate the openness and reciprocity of our academic spirit, sincere collaboration, and humbling learning.

I believe researchers from all over the world will benefit from an open, inclusive, diverse, and scientific platform to discuss and address critical topics concerning human health. Chinese medical researchers look forward to continue to strengthen academic communication about this issue through The Lancet, The Lancet at 200, a start, but more to do.

and take care. I'm Onislaus Tsikidis, Editor in Chief of The Lancet microbe. I've been at Lancet 14 years and there have been quite a few changes over that time. Most obvious is the growth from four journals when I started to 24 at the moment. In the time I've been here, I've been able to watch The Lancet family evolve.

From many vantage points, because I've held every editorial role. I've been assistant, senior assistant, senior and deputy editor and editor in chief, obviously these roles have been in the Lancet infectious diseases and the Lancet microbe, not the Lancet. From my first day, I felt immense pride being part of the Lancet and I continue to be proud.

It's hard to picture what 200 years really means. The best I can do is to keep in mind that Frankenstein was published only five years before the launch of The Lancet. I've spent almost a decade and a half surrounded by people who embody what The Lancet is, to prize good science, but more importantly, what can and should be done with this science.

For me, this is what sets The Lancet apart from other journals. We recognize that science left gathering dust on the shelf is unlikely to do much good. Another thing I'm proud of is that we're not shying away from reflecting on our past. As the 200th anniversary editorial says, we also recognize that the Lancet has at times been complicit in grievous violations of human rights.

The legacy of colonialism inevitably looms large in our history. I'm genuinely excited to see what lessons surface as we reflect on our history, but I'm also sure that we'll apply these lessons to continuing to make The Lancet more than just a journal. Hello, I'm Anthony Costello, and I'm Professor of Global Health at University College London.

The Lancet was founded in 1823 by Thomas Wackley, and his vision was that it should be more than a medical journal. should drive social and political change through Advancing medical research and science for the greater good. Over the past 40 years, I've read The Lancet almost every week. It's the only medical journal in the world that combines scientific excellence with the kind of social and political consciousness that Wackley envisaged.

After Professor Eldred Parry took Richard Horton on trips to Nigeria and Ethiopia to open his eyes, The Lancet has been the leading world medical journal for global health issues. An early interest was in newborn health, the period when almost 50 percent of children died worldwide. And in 2004, we were thrilled when the LARCIC published our first trial of the impact of mobilising women's groups.

In 2007, after I'd been asked by UCL to set up one of the first institutes for global health worldwide, Richard phoned me to ask if we could do the first ever LARCIC commission. On the topic of climate change and health, this meant liaising with academics in geography, economics, law. Maths, philosophy, and other faculties, and our commission was published in 2009 with the strapline, Climate Change is the Biggest Global Health Threat of the 21st Century.

Not everyone agreed with us at the time, but it received global media coverage. After a further commission report in 2015 we generated the idea of a countdown whereby now over a hundred global institutions from every continent Health professionals and academics come together to produce annual reports on the growing threats of climate change to human health.

Our children need to have a stable future. And we must achieve the sustainable development goals, even if we don't do it by 2030. We have very little time to achieve this. The global health gains of the past few decades are at great risk from irreversible and potentially catastrophic environmental change.

The Lancet is the most powerful and influential medical journal in the world. Its voice has never been more important. It must continue to speak truth to power. To report the best evidence for health solutions and technologies. And to emphasize the importance of intercultural understanding, global cooperation, the decolonialization of attitudes and research, and the inspiration we need to build a better future.

Happy 200th anniversary, huge congratulations to all the staff of the Lancet who keep such a wonderful institution alive and thriving. And I'll leave you with a quote from Antonio Gramsci, who said we must report what he called, the quotes, pessimism of the intellect. But balance it with, quotes, the optimism of the will.

Hi there, I'm Peter Heywood, and I'm the editor of The Lancet HIV. I started working at The Lancet in 2002, and I can still very clearly remember my first my first day in the office, even, and my first weeks. And what I was struck by was the commitment, the dedication, and the passion that people who work for The Lancet and authors who wrote for The Lancet and the readers of The Lancet all had for, for a shared endeavor to improve health for justice, for equity, for fairness, and how those goals were viewed with a global perspective.

And even though so much has changed in the past two decades. That I've worked for the Lancet, that endeavor and that commitment, that remains, you know, we've now more than 20 journals and with staff in locations dotted around the world. And even though we've grown so much in the way science has done has changed so much in the way.

Journal that published has changed massively. Despite all that change, the commitment, the passion for those shared endeavors remains. And I like to think that if we could, if we had a time machine and went and fetched Wackley back from 200 years ago, brought him to the modern day and showed him what we were doing, he'd go, yeah, that's right.

This is where you should be. No way would he have predicted where we'd be. But he'd recognize the shared endeavor that we have today. And I think that's testimony to the, you know, all the people who have worked on the Lancet and contributed to the Lancet over the past 200 years. And I really look forward to seeing.

Where we go in the next 10, 20 years. Hello, this is Rita Jakaman, professor of public health at Birzeit University, Israeli occupied West Bank. I am a Palestinian from Bethlehem, so a Bethlehemite, as we say, with a family tree there, going back to 1636. On the occasion of the Lancet's 200th anniversary, I am delighted to say a few words about what it means to me, to us Palestinians, what the Lancet means to all of us and likely many others around the world.

The series made an important Lancet statement working towards removing or reducing exclusion and disqualification because it was the Lancet which included Palestine in its series on Palestinian health and health system in 2009, it gave us identity and voice indeed, with many currently calling for the decolonization of knowledge production as a metaphor or lip service.

The Lancet has been doing exactly this decolonizing knowledge about Palestinians. This opportunity had other effects. It not only brought together a large team of Palestinian regional. and international researchers. It also induced a long term collaboration, the Lancet Palestinian Health Alliance, with annual conferences, publication of abstracts in the Lancet online, and the development of a network of over 500 first authors, the only Lancet collaboration which I know of to have had.

this long term effect, all of which aimed at developing research capacity of especially younger researchers and women covering neglected or mis framed topics. A final word, in a world which seems to be increasingly difficult and constraining, the LPHA, the Lancet Palestinian Health Alliance, and the Lancet give us hope in the future.

Thank you. This is Samer Jabour. I'm a professor of public health practice in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. I'm recording this message for the Lancet at 200. This is a really big milestone for The Lancet, but also for global health. First of all, I'd like to reflect on what it means to be celebrating this 200 years.

And specifically to be among the very first medical journals in this field. What this means is that essentially the Lancet life over the past two years has really been the mirror of the life of medicine and health progress over the past 200 years. And this is actually.

Reflected in the pages of the Lancet and the various initiatives that have been launched, particularly in the past, perhaps 25, 30 years under the leadership of Richard Horton in terms of the global health outreach. So, with 200 years in which the Lancet reflects and, and pushes health progress, you will see on the pages this progress reflected in various ways.

We in the Arab world have benefited tremendously from the partnership with the Lancet, starting from the health in the occupied Palestinian territory through the Lancet series on health in the in the Arab world through the. Lancet Commission Lancet AUB Commission on Syria, the Lancet has really shown true commitment to partnering with various researchers, scholars and and practitioners and even policymakers from our region to advance a discussion on health issues in our region.

So that's, this is tremendously reassuring as well as empowering. To scholars and researchers and practitioners in the various regions to feel that there is a, an influential medical journal and, and an influential global health partner who really stands with you and continues to be with you as you tackle whatever important health issues arise in your region.

It's quite clear that the Lancet does not really shy away from taking risk. And this really defines defines leadership. We very much appreciate this leadership and believe that a journal that's 200 years old can only stay young through such risk taking. I, and I wish the Lancet the best in its journey together which we hope to be part of.

Hello, Gavin. It's Robert B. Gohal here from New Zealand. I've been associated with the Lancet for a long time. My first paper was published in the Lancet 35 years ago, and for the last 20 years or so, I have been a member of the International Advisory Board. I should say that this membership brings me Great pleasure, and of course honor.

I would also say that on a couple of occasions, the International Advisory Board over the last 20 years or so has been of value to the Lancet and to the editor in chief in particular, the Lancet is my favorite medical journal. In fact, it is the own journal which I anticipate every week. I say it's a medical journal, but in fact it is much more than that.

Under the leadership of the Editor in Chief, it has expanded its horizons enormously, as well as, of course, as expanding its associated journals. This has been an amazing achievement. Let me tell you what I like about the Lancet. And I should say that I'm no longer an active medical researcher. I like it that it's a global health journal.

Its vision is broad. Its independence is assured, and its commitment to human rights and social justice are profound. The Lancet, to me, epitomizes everything that a good medical slash health journal should be. It is committed. To the highest level of science, is not afraid to admit and correct mistakes, but it has a conscience, it has a social conscience, a global health conscience, and a commitment to truth and social justice, which is a marker for every journal.

Finally, I should say that, for me, the Lancet is associated with its Editor in Chief. I cannot say how strongly I am of the view that the owners of the Lancet have been truly blessed with their Editor in Chief over the last, is it, three decades. The Editor in Chief of the Lancet. Is a true public intellectual.

Thanks so much for joining us for this episode of The Lancet Voice. This podcast will be marking The Lancet's 200th anniversary throughout 2023 by focusing on the spotlights with lots of different guest hosts from across The Lancet group. Remember to subscribe if you haven't already and we'll see you back here soon.

Thanks so much for listening.