Prof. Andrei Novak died July 11, 2011, and will be remembered for his contributions to quality of life research. Andrei received his MD from the Military Medical Academy, Leningrad in 1975 and in 1982 he completed a residency program in the Department of Hematology and Clinical Immunology, Military Medical Academy (St. Petersburg). It was in St. Petersburg where Andrei emerged as a physician and a scientist, and where he worked till 2003 when he joined the Pirogov National Medical Surgical Center in Moscow. On his move to Moscow he created the Department of Hematology and Cellular Therapy, and became the Russian leader in the field of new treatments in patients with autoimmune diseases, including autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. His clinical and research interests at that time were hematologic disorders; cancer; autoimmune diseases; stem cell transplantation. In 1996 Andrei became the Chief of the Department of Hematology and Clinical Immunology.

Andrei has authored over 600 scientific publications and 10 monographs, including numerous publications on patient-reported outcomes in patients with different chronic disorders. He was a member of the Editorial Board of “Clinical Lymphoma & Myeloma”. He was a member of many scientific societies: European Society of Medical Oncology, European Hematology Association, American Society of Clinical Oncology, American Society of Hematology, International Society of Quality of Life Research, Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer. He had more than 50 PhD students and postdoctoral scientists. He was regarded by them as a gifted and inspirational supervisor.

Of special note is the contribution of Andrei to patient-reported outcomes (PRO) research. He initiated quality of life research in 1996. In 1999 under his initiative the Multinational Center for Quality of Life Research was founded in Russia. Andrei became its President. He and his colleagues in the Multinational Center for Quality of Life Research contributed greatly to the dissemination of the concept of quality of life among physicians in Russia and elsewhere. Numerous projects on quality of life and symptom research in different fields of medicine in Russia were inspired and implemented. In 2007 the Russian Chapter of the ISOQOL was registered on the basis of the collaborators of the Multinational Center for Quality of Life Research.

Being a physician and a researcher Andrei contributed a lot to the development of the concept and methodology of QoL research in clinical medicine. He made a great effort to make QoL research meaningful to the physician community in Russia, and internationally. He developed approaches to interpret QoL data in a way compelling to physicians. In his department in Moscow, QoL and symptom assessment became routinely used measures in clinical practice. Andrei realised the importance of using comprehensive symptom assessment tools to measure symptoms specific to a certain disease or health condition. Along with his American colleagues he initiated the development of a series of symptom assessment tools—Comprehensive Symptom Profile (CSP)—for patients with different chronic disorders.

Due to the initiative of Prof. Novik the Scientific Working Group “Quality of Life & Symptoms” was established within the European Hematology Association (EHA). In 2009 he was elected the Chair of the EHA SWG “Quality of Life and Symptoms”. During 2.5 years leadership Andrei managed to unite hematologists, specialists in PRO research and representatives of patient organisations in Europe to develop a number of projects. The most important project of the EHA SWG “Quality of Life and Symptoms” initiated by Andrei was the development and issuance of Guidelines on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Hematology which will be issued in 2012 by the next EHA congress.

Professor Andrei Novik was a unique personality, being a physician, a scientist and a patient. He was diagnosed with gastric cancer in the advanced stage in 2005; he underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. In spite of long and complicated treatment and a number of health problems during the follow-up he never stopped working, and the last years of his life are accompanied with an intensification of activity, new creative projects in science, developments in his professional career as a physician and as a scientist, and recognition of his contribution in medical science in Russia and internationally. He never stopped seeing patients, and never stopped trying to improve their quality of life. He initiated the creation of two patient organisations in Russia: the Union of Cancer Patients and “New Life”. The Union of Cancer Patients was created in St. Petersburg in 1996 and was the first cancer patient organization in Russia. “New Life” was created in 2008 in Moscow by patients with multiple sclerosis, who underwent autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, and is the only one in the field.