Obituary
Foppe van Mil (1950-2020)
Written by Arjan Polderman
On 18 July 2020, two days after his 70th birthday, EASE member Foppe van Mil died of cancer, at his home in Zuidlaren, Netherlands.
Jan Willem Foppe van Mil was born on 16 July 1950. He obtained a pharmacy degree at Utrecht University (The Netherlands) in December 1977. In 1978 he started working as a community pharmacist in Groningen; later he moved to the nearby village Zuidlaren. He was a critical and socially concerned pharmacist. From 1993 till 2000 he combined this work with a position at Groningen University, where he obtained his PhD degree with a thesis on pharmaceutical care. Since 2000 he was an independent consultant on pharmacy practice research and pharmaceutical care, occasionally working as a locum community pharmacist.
Foppe was an active member of the European Society of Clinical Pharmacy (ESCP), where he often was an invited speaker, workshop moderator or a member of an organizing committee or a scientific committee. He chaired the Communication Committee for many years. In 2012 he was appointed ESCP Fellow. He also was one of the founding members of the Pharmaceutical Care Network Europe (PCNE). Between 1996 and 1999 he was its chairman, and thereafter its professional secretary, until his death. In the PCNE he initiated a classification of drug-related problems. In the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) Foppe was an active member of the Continuing Education Programme committee from 1994 until 2002.
In 1985 Foppe founded Pharma Selecta, an independent Dutch drug bulletin. He wrote numerous papers in many journals and he co-authored the book Pharmacists and Aids, an unknown territory (1997). From 2000 until his death he was Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal for Clinical Pharmacy (IJCP, formerly Pharmacy World & Science; affiliated with the ESCP). As an EASE member he regularly participated in discussions on the EASE Forum.
We will remember Foppe van Mil as a socially concerned, passionate and careful pharmacist, scientist, and editor.