Dr Jonathan D. Quick, a family physician and public health management specialist, is Director, Essential Drugs and Medicines Policy (EDM) for the World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva. EDM works with countries, international agencies, and other organizations to ensure that people everywhere have access to the essential medicines they need; that the medicines are safe, effective, and of good quality; and that they are prescribed and used rationally.

Dr Quick joined WHO in 1995, after nearly 20 years of work in international health. He has served as a long-term advisor for health systems development in Pakistan and Kenya and has carried out assignments in over 25 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. He practised family medicine in the U.S. Indian Health Service, Oklahoma and Boston, USA. He has worked in the area of essential medicines since 1978 and is senior editor of Managing Drug Supply (1997), the standard reference on essential medicines and public health by Management Sciences for Health and the WHO.

Dr Quick has co-authored eleven books, including the 2002 Financial Times Guide to Executive Health, and over 50 articles and chapters on essential medicines, public health, stress management, and executive health. He is Adjunct Associate Professor of Public Health, Boston University School of Public Health; a Diplomat of the American Board of Family Practice; a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine (UK); and a fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine. Dr Quick earned an A.B. degree magna cum laude from Harvard University, USA, and an M.D. degree with distinction in research and an M.P.H. from the University of Rochester; USA.