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<i>JAMA</i> To Name New Editor

The vice dean of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine appears to be the leading candidate to become the new editor of the American Medical Association's influential journal.

Two sources speaking on condition of anonymity said Thursday that they had learned Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis would be named editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, succeeding Dr. George Lundberg.

Lundberg's firing in January provoked a controversy over the journal's editorial independence.

The AMA refused to confirm that DeAngelis was the pick. The AMA had been scheduled to introduce the journal's new editor at a news conference Friday in New York.

DeAngelis is the editor of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, published by the AMA, as well as a member of JAMA's editorial board.

Reached Thursday at her office at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, where she is vice dean of academic affairs and faculty, she declined to confirm her selection.

JAMA has been run by interim co-editors since Lundberg's firing. He was dismissed after publishing in JAMA a survey of college students' sexual attitudes that coincided with President Clinton's impeachment trial.

AMA executive vice president Dr. E. Ratcliffe Anderson felt Lundberg inappropriately injected the organization into a political debate.

Lundberg, who took a job as editor in chief for Medscape.com, an online medical information site, was highly critical of the AMA after his firing, saying he had to battle AMA leaders, members and lobbyists to retain editorial independence of his publication.

The AMA has since created a board to serve as a buffer between the editor in chief and the organization's management.

Written By Andrew Buchanan

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