Oxford Medicine December 2013

Oxford Medicine THE NEWSLETTER OF THE OXFORD MEDICAL ALUMNI OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011

Selecting the next generation of Oxford-trained doctors Vast numbers of school leavers and graduates aspire to become doctors, and many of those aspire to study at Oxford. The numbers of school leavers applying for the 150 places on our standard medical course has doubled from about 750 in 2001 to more than 1500 in 2011; the number of applicants for the 30 places on our graduate-entry medical course is also about ten applicants per place (342 in 2011). More than that, given the desirability of the Oxford medical school, these applicants are already self- and school- selected as some of the highest achievers of their generation. Given this wealth of applicants, how should Oxford go about choosing those to whom we offer a place?

We should first ask “What does any medical school want from the doctors it trains?” For any doctor this should be the ability to interact effectively and ethically with patients and with other professionals; competence over the increasingly broad area of medicine coupled with the ability to develop specialist skills demanded by their chosen area of work; the ability to think from basic principles and to solve problems; and — considering the pace of medical progress — and ability for self-directed learning and adaptation.

Both medical courses at Oxford have always been upfront about the fact that, given we have some of the very best qualified applicants, we hope to select those who will be prominent among the movers and shakers of medicine in the future. But how should we do this, and what tools should we use? What is the evidence base for what we do?

Increasingly we are also asked to demonstrate that our admissions procedures take into account the advantage or disadvantage of the candidates’ background, and that it is clear and transparent.

Oxford has always been clear that the future of medicine requires a strong science base and our courses reflect this. Straight academic ability is therefore one criterion, but some evidence suggests that previous academic achievement predicts less than a third1 of the variance in success in medical school, and much less thereafter.

Problem solving clearly has links with academic ability, but other abilities like team working, empathy and communication skills are also clearly important. Some of the latter develop more slowly and there are few agreed ways of assessing them.

While there are some personality traits one would arguably wish to exclude as unsuitable for medicine, a moment’s thought about the range of different jobs within medicine shows that there can be no one personality profile that would be optimum. Medical schools have devised a variety of different admissions processes and increasingly are evaluating them. Some rely largely on previous academic record; some use observed simulated tutorials, some — given the concerns about interviewer variance in single interviews — use multiple mini-interviews. A number use some form of aptitude test. What procedure has Oxford, with the added complication of its historic collegiate structure, devised to address these many considerations?

Evidence from previous years when all candidates were interviewed strongly suggested that the chances of being offered a place in part could be predicted from previous academic achievement. Interviews for the standard course are therefore offered to ~450 candidates (i.e. ~3 per place) on the basis of an algorithm that uses two measures: their school academic achievement as represented by their GCSE performance (proportion of A*s (pA*)) adjusted for their school’s average performance (i.e. are they doing better or less well than the average at the school); and a biomedical aptitude (BMAT) test used by Oxford, Cambridge and some London schools, which has three sections — problem solving, GCSE science knowledge, and a short essay on a given topic — which is sat in early November. The data for pA* is very heavily skewed to the right; that for BMAT approximates to a normal distribution. The dossiers of all candidates who would not be offered an interview on the basis of the algorithm are sent to tutors who can ‘flag up’ candidates for whom the algorithm might be misleading by reason of disrupted schooling or other problems.

These are then considered by a panel and the final 40 places determined on this basis. A similar process is adopted by the G-E course except that the algorithm is based on the UKCAT score and rankings by panels of tutors of the very diverse application dossiers which include those in the final year of undergraduate courses, through those with DPhils, and those with a wide variety of posteducation working experience.

Photography: Khadar Mohamed Abdul Clinical Skills Laboratory

Contents Clinical admissions to the Oxford Medical School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 OMA President’s News . . . . . . . . . . .3 A Profile of Michael Dunnill . . . . .4 The Anglo-French Medical Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 New name for NHS Trust People in the News

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Saving Oxford Medicine

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Osler House Report . . . . . . . . . . .10 Obituaries

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Alumni events

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Then comes the interview process. Many candidates now opt for the university allocating them to a college. To equalise the chances of candidate success, proportional balanced interview lists are produced centrally so that each college interviews about four times more candidates than it has places.

To make the interview process unbiased by either the aptitude test score or any college preference expressed by candidates, interviews are conducted blind of this information. To overcome problems associated with single interviews, candidates are interviewed by two colleges, and by two panels in each interviewing college. With intensive interviewing this means that candidates only have to be in Oxford for 24 hours. Each interviewing panel consists of at least two interviewers and all candidates must be interviewed by both a practising clinician and a male and female interviewer. Each interviewer then evaluates the candidate in relation to a set of criteria — problem solving, ethical awareness etc. Each college then produces a ranked list of the candidates it has interviewed; this is repeated at the second college. For the standard course ranking information is then shared, allowing the possibility of discussion (e.g. “why did you rank candidate A so low, he/she did rather well with us?”); colleges then produce a second ranking based on all the interview information. Finally the BMAT/UKCAT scores are released, BMAT essays (which experience suggests are poor predictors) are made available, and each college produces a list ranking all those who it has interviewed. The office then links this ranking with the previously determined college priority; tutors are informed of the outcome and colleges contact candidates to offer places.

Because of the smaller number of candidates and colleges and the greater diversity of the G-E candidates, the discussion of interview performance occurs at a tutors’ meeting. The outcome is that about one third of all candidates accept a place at a college other than that for which they expressed a preference or were allocated.

How well does this work? The process is certainly very labour intensive, with large numbers of medical school staff giving up one week

of each year to the process. The only real evidence that we have is our very low drop-out rates (2–3%; usually from students changing course after arrival); the correlation of BMAT score with success in preclinical examinations; the students’ exit evaluation of the courses which indicate considerable satisfaction, and the success of Oxford medical graduates in national post qualification professional examinations.

What of the future? The efficacy of BMAT is continuously evaluated; section 2 is increasingly difficult to set as boards vary their syllabi. The G-E course seems likely to change from using the UKCAT and may accept candidates with a wider variety of first degrees based on experience from elsewhere. Candidates from disadvantaged backgrounds are encouraged to apply by efforts such as the UNIQ summer school, and disadvantage may be assessed differently e.g. by postcodes. The GMC also encourages patient and public involvement in the selection process.

Emphasis on scientific output means that fewer and fewer college preclinical tutors have a medical background and the pressures of the health service make it increasingly difficult for practising clinicians to devote the time to interviewing. Most recently there has been a proposal that decisions on university admissions should be made only after A level results are known, though how this could work for Oxford is quite unclear. However we go about choosing what we hope will be the leading Oxford doctors of the future it must clearly be based on the best evidence, so we badly need better outcome data. That said, medical students — whether standard or G-E — change during the course, and no selection procedure can allow for that. What is clear is that we should continue to put very considerable effort and thought into the admissions process; we owe that to the future.

1 Ferguson E et al (2002) British Medical Journal 324: 952–957

This article is informed by the author’s thirty-plus years of the admissions process in Oxford and by input from colleagues, in particular Robert Wilkins and William James (past Admissions Advisors); Huw Dorkins and Paul Dennis (Deputy Director and Director of the G-E Course) and Dr Helen Salisbury who chaired a recent meeting of the Oxford Medical Education Forum devoted to this topic.

John Morris

Vice-President Oxford Medical Alumni, Immediate Past Director of Preclinical Studies and WellcomeFranks Fellow and Tutor in Medicine at St Hugh’s

Clinical admissions to the Oxford Medical School In 2001, the Oxford clinical course began an expansion which led to student numbers rising by over 60% to 160 per year. These numbers reflected an expansion to 150 in the numbers entering pre-clinical study at Oxford, and the creation of a completely new four year graduate entry medical course admitting 30 students per year. These developments meant that, for the first time, the number of pre-clinical students at Oxford exceeded the number of clinical places. The expansion plan included an agreement with what was then the University of London. This created earmarked places in London schools for Oxford students who chose to move, or were unsuccessful in gaining a place on the Oxford clinical course.

Although not anticipated at the time, these changes were to lead to significant changes to the demography of the Oxford clinical student body.

Prior to 2000, Oxford accepted applications to the clinical years from any UK medical school, and had particularly strong links with Cambridge, such that up to 50% of entrants in some years came from outside Oxford.

In turn, many Oxford students decided to pursue their clinical studies in London, or occasionally at other UK medical schools. The imbalance between preclinical and clinical numbers created by the 2001 expansion led to an immediate increase in competition for places on the Oxford clinical course. This competition intensified in the subsequent decade

as an increasing proportion of Oxford students applied to stay for clinical studies: in 2011 95% of Oxford preclinical students ranked Oxford as their first choice clinical school. Increasingly, Oxford students appear unwilling to move for clinical studies. This change in behaviour may be related to Oxford’s high scores in the National Student Survey (NSS), which have been publicly available since 2007. The NSS forms the basis for broadsheet subject league tables which have rated Oxford the number one UK medical school during this period. As a result of this rising demand for places Oxford no longer considers applications for transfer from any medical school except Oxford and Cambridge, and 90% of the intake is now home-grown.

Are these good changes or not? Changing universities can be stimulating to both individuals and institutions, and many Oxford faculty, who themselves enjoyed the diverse experiences of two medical schools, lament the reduction in numbers transferring to Oxford from Cambridge and elsewhere. Time inevitably moves on and the introduction of the Graduate Entry Course has brought further diversity into the Clinical School, albeit of a different kind.

Tim Lancaster

Director of Clinical Studies, Oxford Medical School

OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011 / 3

OMA President’s News Distinguished Frie nd of Oxford aw arded to John Ledingham On Saturday 8th October the Vice Chancellor visited Osler House to confer the title of Distinguished Friend of Oxford on Professor John Ledingham, to acknowledge his outstanding work on behalf of Osler House and the Medical Sciences Division, especially since his retirement. Many friends and colleagues gathered in a buzz of animated conversation, as the sun shone into the Wing Tat Lee room.

In a formal citation, the VC heard of JGGL’s crucial role in the formation of OMA and the refurbishment of Osler House. A team of current Tingewick students sang their own special informal citation in celebration of his many merits and achievements*. Arvind Singhal, the President of Osler House, presented Dr Elaine Ledingham with a colourful bouquet in celebration of her own contribution to her husband’s successes. The reception which followed brought together many who have collaborated with him over the years, and Osler House proved a wonderful venue for a very happy occasion.

Theo Schofield and Keith Hawton have agreed to collaborate in looking at how best to do this — please do send us your thoughts on reunions, what format you would like if and when you would like to meet . We currently aim to hold a series of reunions dated from the year of final qualification. The first is at ten years with a family tea party in June at Osler House and a formal college dinner the same evening. At twenty five years, a dinner is held on the evening of the spring OMA meeting, and all alumni who have reached forty five years or more are invited to a lunch during the University Alumni weekend in September. We’re sure we can improve our organisation to offer a good spectrum of events, as Oxford has so much to offer; what we most need is a full list of addresses for the names we have entered on the database for each year-group, preferably with an email contact, and at least one focal person from each group who can advise us about what format would suit them best and who can also encourage their contemporaries to join in.

Recording the mem ories of Medical Alum ni We are delighted that our project headed by Derek Hockaday has begun to capture the memories of some Oxford medical alumni. We are encouraging volunteers to record informal interviews or conversations, so that John Oxbury recently captured his neurological eminence grise, John Spalding. OMA hopes to make their conversation available on the OMA website, both as a pod-cast and as a downloadable transcript. We much appreciate any collaboration which will extend this idea, and we would very much welcome suggestions from you, as readers of Oxford Medicine, about possible interviewees and interviewers — please do contact Jayne Todd. For alumni who live within striking distance of Oxford, the necessary small, simple and excellent recording equipment is available to borrow from the OMA office — currently and temporarily upstairs at Osler House. An interesting series from 1981 of taped interviews with the elderly Professor Dame Ida Mann is pledged to the Bodleian Library for the medical archiving project, which has recently focused on her material.

North America and Australia OMA has traditionally held a reunion in New York every two years, at the Waldorf Astoria. We are very keen to continue this tradition but we are considering other venues, including the Princeton Club. We are working with Don Chambers and the North American Osler Society on a revamp, and we would very much like to hear the views of alumni who might wish to attend; the next is set for spring 2012.

Next year will also see the first Australian reunion in early March, organised at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania by Roger Bodley and Peter Morris with Peter Teddy. Laurie Beilin is hoping to attend, so the span of years is likely to be impressive and booking is already brisk.

Oxford Medicine and re unions We waited with somewhat bated breath after the launch of our first electronic version of Oxford Medicine, as a PDF emailed in early September 2011 to over 7,500 alumni at zero extra cost. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, with many appreciations and only a few reservations; Jayne Todd and Derek Jewell are to be warmly congratulated. The funds saved by this swap will allow us to concentrate more on our reunion programme and I am delighted that

Oxford Medical Mentoring Thank you to those who have very kindly offered to be involved in this. We are now deciding how best to take this forward based on the numbers involved and we will be in touch with you in early 2012. If anyone else wishes to be involved then please do let us know.

I bring greetings from the OMA team with the Executive committee, Jayne Todd and Deanna Edsall, and our best wishes for 2012, in which we would be delighted to see you in Oxford.

Peggy Frith OMA President * A description of the DFO ceremony, the words of the student song, and photographs of the event are available on the OMA website www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/oma

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Profile of Michael Dunnill After qualifying in Bristol and two house jobs at Bristol Royal Infirmary I did national service in the army where I found myself regimental medical officer to the first battalion the Highland light Infantry. We were stationed in Tel el Kebir, an outpost in the desert renowned as the location of a battle with Arabi Pasha in 1882. In 1952 it was the site of an ordnance depot for supplying the divisions guarding the Suez Canal. Surrounded by a minefield and barbed wire, there were approximately 10,000 troops that included two other battalions and a host of engineers and corps staff. My duties were usually completed by 8.30am and, apart from Fridays nights spent sewing up wounds of drunken Jocks and occasional periods on manoeuvres, my time was my own. I read a lot, drank a lot and after a month realised I was on the road to ruin. However, a short distance from our camp was a hospital. Do not picture a version of the John Radcliffe. This hospital consisted of a series on Nissen huts accommodating patients, ten unfortunate members of Queen Alexandra’s nursing corps and five regular RAMC doctors. There was also a pathology laboratory but no pathologist. Always interested in pathology it occurred to me that I might be usefully employed there. After brief negotiations with the commanding officer of the hospital (an alcoholic) and the Director of Pathology for the Middle East, whom it transpired had little knowledge of the subject, I was appointed unofficial pathologist to the hospital.

Surprisingly perhaps considering the garrison was composed of fit young men there was plenty of work. Various forms of dysentery, infective skin conditions including diphtheritic sores, and occasional cases of malaria and tuberculosis came my way. Idle soldiers, of which there were many, have a tendency to experiment with live ammunition resulting in a variety of potentially fatal, often self-inflicted, wounds.

There were two very able laboratory technicians and together we set up a blood transfusion service, grouping a large number of volunteers who agreed to donate blood. There were no adequate storage facilities for blood so donors were called upon when needed, something easy to achieve in the confines of a military camp.

There were facilities for post mortem examination and I found myself detailed to perform several, the most alarming of which was a case of murder. Happily it was easy to ascertain the cause of death.

The victim was a sergeant-major who had been persistently bullying a Mauritian pioneer; the latter finally took matters into his own hands and struck the bully over the head with a metal tent peg. The court martial of this poor man nearly delayed my demobilisation. He was convicted and transported back to Mauritius where I was pleased to learn there was no capital punishment.

After demobilisation I spent two years as a junior pathologist at Bristol, four years as a graduate assistant in Oxford and then a period as a research fellow in the cardio-pulmonary division at Columbia University, New York. In 1962 I was back in Oxford as a pathologist at the Radcliffe Infirmary eager to pursue my studies on pulmonary pathology. One morning in Hilary term 1967 George Pickering appeared round the door of my room in the Gibson Laboratories and said that he wanted me to become the Director of Clinical Studies. This was not something I wanted to do but he gave me little choice as he was off to the United States for a period of sabbatical leave. In those days the medical school was small with an annual intake of thirty

students and even on occasion that number was not achieved.

Increasing the numbers to 50 a year was one of my first tasks and every medical tutor in Cambridge was approached by letter and asked to inform those for whom they were responsible of the advantages of taking their clinical course in Oxford. The result was gratifying and we had an excellent number of Cambridge graduates applying for entry.

This was a period of fitful, if widespread, student unrest (on 25 February 1970 undergraduates in Oxford occupied the Clarendon building) and we accepted several students who had been at the forefront of similar disturbances in Cambridge; they seemed content to be sympathetically received as refugees here.

At this time there was a particular ferment of discontent with the medical curriculum. There had been little change since the 1920s. The combination of the need for more doctors and the considerable advances in medicine gave rise to dissatisfaction both with the content and length of the clinical course. No one was more conscious of this than George Pickering; he had been instrumental in alerting the academic world to the defects and in many cases total lack of provision for postgraduate education in the profession. Now he was anxious to tackle the undergraduate course and already had experience in this as he had chaired the committee appointed to establish the new medical school in Nottingham. In order to facilitate change in Oxford he engineered the appointment of Paul Beeson as the new Nuffield professor of medicine.

Beeson came from Yale where the clinical course lasted two years as opposed to three years in Britain. A committee was set up to suggest alterations to the course and it was concluded that there were two main defects. Firstly, there was no formal teaching in special pathology and secondly the course was too long. The changes proposed, chiming with those of the Royal Commission on medical education that reported in 1968, were based on the assumption that in the future all doctors, general practitioners and hospital consultants, would be specialists in one particular aspect of medicine. The implication of this was that a complete education in all branches of medicine was an obsolete concept. The aim should be to produce a broadly educated person who would become a specialist by further training. Opposition to change was considerable. Yet success was achieved with regard to pathology. Beeson was able to put a strong case to the Harkness foundation for building a teaching laboratory. I went to New York and inspected the laboratory at the Cornell medical school, then drew up a plan on what I had seen. This was the plan that the architects eventually adopted. The Harkness Foundation gave a very generous grant that was matched by the Hospital Board and the building that bears their name was put up very quickly and, still remains in place today amid the desert that once was the Radcliffe Infirmary. Extra lecturers were appointed, special pathology was incorporated into a new introductory course and there was an examination on the subject before full time clinical work started – an early attempt at continuous assessment.

It was proposed to shorten the course by reducing the time spent on special subjects and by abolishing the revision course. It was considered that if a student had conscientiously attended the various clinical attachments there should be no need for a long period of revision. Furthermore both Pickering and Beeson were keen to reduce the time spent on certain specialties. Thus they considered obstetrics and gynaecology essentially postgraduate subjects. In ophthalmology and otorhinolaryngology it was thought that students needed to learn methods of clinical examination rather than become familiar with details of specific diseases. Alas, these concepts were considered too radical for the Faculty of Medicine to take on board and fell by the wayside.

OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2009 / 5

When I accepted the post of Director of Clinical Studies I did not realise that George Pickering had every intention of quitting the Regius chair at the earliest possible moment for the Mastership of Pembroke College. As soon as this was announced there was a flurry of activity with regard to his replacement. At that time appointment to the Regius chair was in the gift of the Prime Minister – a source of some annoyance to the University hierarchy who feared the selection of an inappropriate candidate. In 1968 there was a committee of the Medicine Board to advise the Prime Minister’s patronage secretary.

They met on several occasions under the chairmanship of Sir Lindor Brown and failed to reach a firm conclusion. Beeson was the obvious choice but he was not a British citizen and it would have required an act of parliament for him to be appointed. There was an impasse.

Oliver Franks was consulted and he suggested that the patronage secretary would be greatly influenced by a letter signed by members of the faculty. Such a letter was drawn up, signed by a large number of non-professorial faculty members, proposing Richard Doll. In due course the patronage secretary arrived in Oxford for consultation with the Vice-Chancellor, the Registrar and other senior university worthies.

By late afternoon a somewhat exhausted figure appeared in the medical school office. Rather nervously I offered him tea and cakes

that he readily accepted. He then said that Doll was the obvious choice but would be grateful if I could assist him on another matter.

Did I know anyone who would be a suitable Bishop as there was great difficulty in finding appropriate men? I fear I was of no help. That said the choice of Regius by this method was most fortunate as during his tenure Doll oversaw expansion of the medical school, the establishment of an internationally famous department of epidemiology and public health, introduction of five new chairs and the foundation of a college.

In 1972 I received a letter from the Secretary of Faculties asking me to sign on for a further five years. By this time the new pathology course was established, the Harkness building was complete and Paul Beeson was considering moving back to the States. I was frustrated at having to spend so much time away from the laboratory and sitting on wearisome committees and so I declined the offer. Involvement with the medical students, many of whom have subsequently become distinguished members of the profession, was most enjoyable but the administrative duties were often frustrating, unnecessarily tedious and complex. I was delighted to hand over my responsibilities into the capable hands of Jim Holt.

Michael Dunnill

The Oxford Alumni Travel Programme The new travel brochure for tours in 2012 and beyond is now available. Highlights include two new cruises to Greenland and Norway with Hurtigruten. There are also new tours to Burma, China and Russia with Distant Horizons. All tours are accompanied by expert trip scholars, and groups are small. Please note that most of the tours in the brochure are available without flights if you prefer. Oxford alumni are welcome to take friends and family on the tours.

For further details, please visit w w w.alum ni.ox .ac.uk/tr av e l or phone 01865 611617.

Anglo-French Medical Society The Anglo-French Medical Society began in 1983. It is a ‘convivial and informative society where everyone is welcome, whatever their linguistic ability’. More details of the conferences and awards are available from the websites: w ww.anglofrenchmedical.org or ww w.asso.proxiland.fr/amfb Medical students are encouraged to apply for elective bursaries funded by a legacy from Miss Ford, General de Gaulle’s chauffeur.

Each completed report receives £50 and there are then six bursaries of £300. A shortlist of the three best authors receive funding to attend a society meeting to be judged for a further award.

Qualified doctors in training posts can apply for exchanges to French hospitals through the Will Reynish prize.

Students and doctors can apply to attend the Medical French residential weekend course, now held at Warwick University; invaluable for those intending to study or work clinically in Francophone countries, or with organisations such as Médecins sans Frontières. More details from c.greenwood@liverpool.ac.uk

I joined twenty years ago, finding a delightful group, where non-medical partners were welcomed. Annual meetings last three days, and can be accepted for continuing medical education needs. One finds good food, good wine (especially in France!) and good company.

Accommodation is now usually in a hotel with conference facilities in a place of cultural (and gastronomic) interest. Educational sessions are held in the morning, while accompanying guests can visit sites of interest, e.g. learning how vellum is made, or about ostriculture. In the afternoon, visits for all take place to other areas of note. There is a winter meeting; action and presentations in Chamonix for sports lovers.

My most treasured memory is of society members walking bare-legged in a guided group across the bay to Mont St-Michel on St. Michael’s day, to the sounds of plainsong from pilgrims complemented by seagulls. ‘Inoubliable’.

C.J. Barton

Osler House 1969.

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New name for NHS Trust reflects ties with University The Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust; a single NHS Trust to run Oxfordshire’s four teaching hospitals was launched on 1 November 2001. The new Trust arises from a merger of the city’s two acute hospital Trusts (the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre NHS Trust). The John Radcliffe hospital, the Churchill hospital, the Horton General in Banbury and the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre will retain their current names and functions, but will now be run by the single NHS Trust under a single board and management team.

The University of Oxford plays no part in the merger, which is an NHS matter, but the new name of the merged Trust signals the close working relationship between the University and the local hospitals. A joint working agreement between the merged Trust and the University of Oxford will now come into operation, and provide a formal structure and governance for the relationship between the two organisations. The joint working agreement is designed to support the

best teaching of medical students, excellence in medical research and the delivery of quality healthcare.

Oxford University medical students benefit from the clinical training they receive at all the hospitals and many staff have both University and NHS roles, carrying out leading research in University departments and running clinics and treating patients in the hospital.

Professor Alastair Buchan, head of medical sciences at Oxford University, said: ‘These tighter links between the University and the hospitals should see benefits for patients locally and see Oxford play its role in driving medical advances on the world stage. It’s a very positive step. You can’t do the best clinical research without patients being involved, and the best medical care is grounded in the latest research.’

People in the News Professor Frances Ashcroft has won the top award in the L’ORÉAL-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards for 2012.

Professor Ashcroft is one of five women scientists from around the world, one from each continent, that will be named 2012 Laureates for their contribution to science at a ceremony in March. The $100,000 award recognises Professor Ashcroft’s work in advancing understanding of insulin secretion and a type of diabetes that develops in the first months of life.

Professor Ashcroft is a Royal Society Research Professor at Oxford and a Fellow of Trinity College. In 1984, Professor Ashcroft discovered the missing link connecting an increase in the blood sugar level to secretion of the hormone insulin. In subsequent studies, she unravelled how genetic mutations in this protein cause a rare inherited condition, known as neonatal diabetes, in which patients develop diabetes soon after birth. This has enabled many people with neonatal diabetes to switch to a better form of medication.

Professor Gunter Blobel, president of the award jury and the winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1999, said: ‘This award is testament to Professor Ashcroft's intellectual achievements and her energy, dedication and passion for her research. The judges were also struck by her commitment to communicating science to the general public. She is an inspirational role model for younger female scientists.’

More recently, Professor Ashcroft has focused on a different medical problem, that of obesity. She and her colleagues have illuminated the molecular function of a protein called FTO, which was previously known to influence obesity but whose mechanism of action remained a mystery.

Professor Margaret Snowling, FBA has been elected President of St John’s College and will succeed Sir Michael Scholar. Professor Snowling is an internationally known expert on reading disorders and presently holds a Chair at the University of York where she co-directs the Centre for Reading and Language. She is a former President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Psychology section) and is Past-President of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading. In 2008, she was elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences.

Professor Kevin Talbot has been appointed to the new Chair of Motor Neuron Biology at Oxford. The establishment of this Chair, the first of its kind in the UK, is supported by the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association and the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Trust. There are 5,000 people in the UK living with the condition, and the MND Association estimates that around half of patients will die within 14 months of receiving their diagnosis due to the rapid progression of the disease. Professor Talbot’s research at Oxford University, with support from the MND Association, focuses on two areas: creating new disease models in the laboratory to understand the biological processes occurring in the patient. Searching for ‘biomarkers’, that could speed up diagnosis and predict the pattern of disease progression. Professor Talbot has already established and developed one of Europe’s leading care and research centres in motor neurone disease. He and his team now see 150 new patients every year, 10% of all referrals in the UK, and have over 250 patients under active follow-up. It makes Oxford the second largest motor neurone disease clinic in the UK. The Oxford MND Care Centre based at the John Radcliffe Hospital was established in 2002 with a grant from the MND Association. It continues to receive financial support from the charity.

OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011 / 7

Dr Matthew Wood has been awarded a £2.5 million Health Innovation Challenge Fund (HICF), a translational research award scheme funded equally by the Wellcome Trust and the Department of Health has been awarded to fund research into Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Dr Wood and colleagues at the MDEX Consortium — a UK-based translational medicine network of neuromuscular disease experts working to turn scientific findings into drugs and other forms of healthcare — have successfully trialled a treatment using antisense oligonucleotides (AOs) — DNA-based drugs that can repair the gene and restore functional dystrophin to the muscles of DMD patients. Currently the AO drug is only moderately effective in skeletal muscle and does not work on heart muscle. Led by Dr Wood, the group is now developing a new generation of AO drugs which will dramatically improve the delivery and restoration of dystrophin by all muscle. The treatment will be tested in a clinical trial on nine DMD patients, starting in 2013.

Professor Robert MacLaren, from Oxford’s Department of Ophthalmology, has won a £1.2 million HICF award to investigate a new treatment for choroideraemia, an incurable blindness and form of retinitis pigmentosa — a disease causing damage to the retina. The problem develops in childhood and often runs in families with night blindness the most likely initial symptom. The disease mostly occurs in men who become totally blind, usually in their forties. Professor MacLaren and Professor Miguel Seabra from Imperial College London, an expert in the molecular biology of choroideraemia, have developed an experimental genetic treatment, which has been tested successfully in Oxford University’s Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology. They plan four more years of research on a potential gene therapy treatment.

and Visiting Professor, Nuffield Department of Clinical Medicine, has been appointed to the Cheryl and Reece Scott Professorship of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry from October 2011.

Professor Newton will be a fellow of St John's.

2011 MJA Open Book Aw ards Highly Commended — Susan Burge and Dinny Wallis, for Oxford Handbook of Medical Dermatology 2011 BMA Medical Book Awards Highly Commended — Yaver Bashir, Timothy R. Betts and Kim Rajappan for Oxford Specialist Handbooks in Cardiology: Cardiac Electrophysiology and Catheter Ablation 2011 Medical Futures Innovation Aw ards, announced at an awards ceremony hosted by comedian Rory Bremner and Dynasty actress Emma Samms recognise the Best Therapeutic Innovation, and the Best Translational Research Innovation overall, as the Cystic Fybrosis Gene Therapy developed by researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Edinburgh and Imperial College, London. This delivers a normal version of the faulty cystic fibrosis gene into the lungs of sufferers via a virus. The Oxford Group is led by Dr Deborah Gill and Dr Steve Hy de and forms one third of the UK Cystic Fibrosis Gene Therapy Consortium.

The aim of this Consortium of scientists and clinicians is to make gene therapy for Cystic Fibrosis (CF) lung disease a clinical reality.

Professor Richard Hobbs from the University of Birmingham took over the post of Head of the Department of Primary Care Health Sciences after the retirement of Professor David Mant.

Prof. Ray mond Courteney Tallis (1964) published his latest book in June 2011 Aping Mankind. Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity

Dr Samantha Knight, Dr Jenny Taylor, Dr Anna Schuh and Professor Chris Holmes from the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics and the National Institute for Health Research Oxford Biomedical Research have developed specialised approaches to test the genetic make-up of blood cells from patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). Their £730,000 award from the HICF will enable these approaches to be validated in a three year study using patient samples from the UKCLL National Cancer Research Network trials. The more precise detection of relevant genetic alterations will allow doctors to provide the most suitable treatment for patients, reducing mortality and NHS care costs, and minimising side-effects of treatment.

Charles R J C Newton, Professor in Tropical Neurosciences and Paediatrics, Institute of Child Health, UCL; Wellcome Trust Senior Clinical Fellow, Wellcome Trust/Kenya Medical Research Institute Collaborative Programme, Centre for Geographical Medicine, Kilifi, Kenya; Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, Great Ormond Street Hospital; Honorary Professor of Tropical Medicine, Clinical Research Unit, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine; Honorary Professor, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Tanzania;

David Burn (1982) Professor of Movement Disorder Neurology at Newcastle University has been Acting Director of the University’s Institute for Ageing and Health since April 2011.

Peter C Taylor, (1982) was appointed to the Norman Collison chair of musculoskeletal sciences at Oxford from October 2011. His clinical and research work in Oxford will be based within the Nuffield Department of Orthopaedics, Rheumatology and Musculoskeletal Sciences (NDORMs) at the Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre where he will lead the clinical trials research. He was formerly Professor of Experimental Rheumatology at the Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology Division, Imperial College, London, an honorary consultant rheumatologist working in Imperial College NHS Healthcare Trust and lead clinician for rheumatology. He was also head of the clinical trials group at the Kennedy Institute Division, and Dean of the Charing Cross campus. He studied preclinical medical sciences at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge and studied clinical medicine at Oxford; he was awarded a PhD degree from the University of London for studies on pathogenesis of arthritis.

8 / OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011

Nick Haining (1986) was recently welcomed to the White House by President Obama as one of the winners of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and. His group was selected for the award, which recognizes high-potential leaders who are working at the frontiers of science and are committed to community service.

Nick Haining is assistant professor of paediatrics, at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School; associate member, Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. His research focuses on understanding the basis of protective T-cell immunity in humans and developing novel therapeutic approaches to rescue function in exhausted T cells. Before taking up his present post Nick Haining trained as a paediatric oncologist at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston before doing a post-doc in Lee Nadler's laboratory at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He started his own lab at DFCI in 2008, and still sees patients in the Jimmy Fund Clinic and at Children's Hospital.

Jonathan Cohen (1998) Clinical Training Fellow at UCL Institute of Child Health has achieved his PhD at University College London.

The 2011 Oxford University Teaching Aw ards recognise different ways to engage students and help them learn, from creating new courses to innovative use of audio and video podcasts and the delivery of exceptional lectures and demonstrations. Many of the awards have been made following feedback from undergraduates, graduates and members of staff who have singled out the special contribution of those involved in promoting the highest standards of teaching and learning. In the Medical Sciences Division the teaching awards recipients included:

Dr David Popplewell, Department of Experimental Psychology and Brasenose College

Professor Nick Rawlins, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Development and External Affairs) and member of the Department of Experimental Psychology and Wolfson College, who received an award recognising the outstanding contribution he has made to postgraduate education in Oxford over many years.

Dr Philip Biggin, Department of Biochemistry and Lady Margaret Hall

Ms Christelle Kervella, Department of Public Health

Mark Duxbury (1996) Clinician Scientist and Honorary Consultant Surgeon in HepaticPancreatico-Biliary Surgical Services at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh has received a grant from PSGBI in September 2011 towards his project on systematic identification and functional characterisation of specific protein interaction partners of the Homosapiens SID1 transmembrane family member 1 (SIDT1) protein in human pancreatic cancer.

Prof essor Tere nce Ry an, Emeritus Professor of Dermatology, University of Oxford inaugurated the new Institute of Applied Dermatology in Uliyathadka, Kasaragod, India on 2nd December 2011.

• Mrs Helen McGrath, Faculty of Physiological Sciences Undergraduate Studies Office • Mr Juan Escobar, Mrs Anoma Wagner, and Ms Patricia Hook, Department of Biochemistry • Mr Timothy Pragnell, Department of Physiology, Anatomy & Genetics • M s Anne Tay lor, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences • Dr Mark Roberts, Department of Biochemistry • M r Jo hn S alm o n, Oxford Eye Hospital, John Radcliffe Hospital Professor Alan Stein Department of Psychiatry, Linacre College Dr Paul Ramchandani, Department of Psychiatry, Corpus Christi College Teaching Awards ceremony pictures courtesy of Rob Judges Photography

Membership of OMA is open to: • Anyone who has studied medicine at Oxford, which includes those who have been a member of the Oxford Medical School, and those who studied at Oxford as part of their medical studentship when at other institutions.

• Those who have researched, or studied, at any level, in disciplines related to medicine in other departments or colleges of the University of Oxford.

• Anyone who has taught medicine, or its related disciplines, at Oxford, including those who have taught students as part of their clinical or research work at Oxford.

• Any person or institution who wishes to promote the goodwill of Oxford Medicine.

Membership of OMA is £30 per annum.

Keeping in Touch We are currently in touch with thousands of former students and staff throughout the world. By keeping us informed of your up-to-date mailing and email addresses we can send you regular information about our activities and events, and publications.

Oxford Medical Alumni, Medical Sciences Office, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX3 9DU UK Telephone: 01865 221690 (Direct line) Email: oma@medsci.ox.ac.uk w w w.medsci.ox.ac.uk/oma

OMA complies strictly with the terms of the Data Protection Act and will never release your information to anyone without your consent.

OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011 / 9

Saving Oxford Medicine The Saving Oxford Medicine project, which began in early 2011, is a collaboration between the Medical Sciences Division and the Bodleian Library to locate, promote and preserve for future research Oxford medical archives of the 20th and 21st centuries.

A presentation to a meeting of Oxford medical alumni in April resulted in a number of useful leads. The project archivists are in touch with key subjects in order to survey their archives and plan for their future preservation. A major acquisition has been the first portion of the archive of Professor Sir David Weatherall. A number of Medical Sciences Division websites are also being electronically captured and archived.

A survey of the archives of holders of senior medical posts is being carried out in order to establish which are securely held in archive repositories and whether the remainder might be located and also preserved. For example, we have at present no information about the papers of Arthur Duncan Gardner, Regius Professor from 1948 to 1954, who had been a member of the Oxford team led by Professor Howard Florey that isolated penicillin and further developed the drug during the Second World War.

staff can be seen in caricature on this menu of 1898, including, at the piano, the Regius Professor, Sir John Scott Burdon Sanderson.

Sir William Osler, Regius Professor from 1905 to 1919, has figured in our work in a variety of ways. We are exploring with Professor Terence Ryan the medical collections brought together in recent years at 13 Norham Gardens, Oxford, formerly the home of the Osler family, now the Osler-McGovern Centre for the promotion of the integration of the art and science of medicine.

Catalogues of papers relating to the ophthalmologist, Ida Mann, and the pharmacologist, Edith Bülbring, and the records of the Oxford Diabetes Trust, all held by the Library, have been published.

With a project of this nature we rely to a great extent on members of the medical community acting as our eyes and ears. Please check the project page at: http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/bodley/library/specialcollections/ projects/saving-oxford-medicine and blog: http://savingoxfordmedicine.blogspot.com/ now and again and do contact us if you have any information about relevant archive materials or if you would like further information.

Chrissie Webb and Catherine Parker, Project Archivists (01865 277597) chrissie.w ebb@bodleian.ox.ac.uk catherine.parker@bodleian.ox.ac.uk Osler’s clock It was brought to our notice recently that a clock presented to the Bodleian Library by Sir William Osler in 1912, which sits under the bust of Sir Thomas Bodley in Duke Humfrey’s Library, no longer chimed. We are glad to say that, as it approaches its centenary, the clock is chiming again and that an explanatory label is being designed. A file relating to the presentation of the clock survives among the Library’s records and shows that the clock was personally chosen by Osler, and purchased from R S Rowell, Jewellers, 115 High Street, Oxford, following the recommendation of Falconer Madan, Bodley’s Librarian, of ‘a clock with a good 18th century style of case, and striking hours and half hours on a gong with a non-irritant sound…’. With the support of the London Osler Society, plans are being made for the refurbishment of the clock in Duke Humfrey’s Library to commemorate its presentation in 1912 by Sir William Osler, a regular user of the Library.

Dinner menu, 1898

We recently received from Reading University a collection of materials relating to Oxford medicine from the archive of Hugh MacDonald Sinclair (1910-90), creator of the wartime Oxford Nutrition Survey and Reader in Human Nutrition at Oxford from 1951 to 1958. These are predominantly papers relating to the research of Professor Kenneth Franklin, Dean of the Medical School 1934-46, into the history of the School. They include interesting and entertaining ephemera such as menus, prints and commemorative items. Some senior members of

Copyright Bodleian Library 2011 Photography: Nick Cistone

10 / OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011

News from Osler House “If I have seen a little further, it is only by standing on the shoulders of Giants” — Isaac Newton It is always a pleasure, as President, to have a chance to discuss how Osler continues to move from strength to strength. Our progress, of course, is on the back of previous generations. The recent “Distinguished Friend of Oxford” award presented to Professor John Ledingham by the Vice Chancellor in Osler House was a fitting reminder of the work done by individuals before us. We therefore strive to continue the good work, as well take things forward where we can.

Osler continues to have an excellent relationship with the Medical School. Our students continue to excel academically and extracurricularly. Our sports teams continue to enjoy themselves (with mixed success — we unfortunately recently suffered defeat at the hands of Cambridge in the Varsity Sports Day!). The Tingewick society is as funny (and outrageous) as ever and Osler House itself continues to be the social hub for all clinical students. Osler is, of course, not without its problems. We continue to be in financial difficulty, requiring us to cut spending, and explore new ways to generate income.

Our club, however, continues to flourish. We now have more

student-run societies than ever. The scope of welfare and peer support is ever expanding. Fresher’s fortnight was a resounding success, with the two weeks filled with popular events showcasing Osler House. We are building stronger links between junior doctors and students through student-organised bedside tutorials, and joint sports and societies. This year we are trialling a housing database, where students help each other find accommodation in Oxford, and in a similar vein we hope to have a foundation post database to help students through daunting applications.

If it seems I have said “continue” a lot, it is only to emphasise that Osler House is not just a product of its current members, but also its past. Thus we continue to progress, not because we are better than our predecessors, but because they add to our stature, and raise us up to allow us to see further than they could.

Arvind Singhal Osler House President 2011–2012 arvind.singhal@medschool.ox.ac.uk www.osler.co.uk

If you would like to find out more about Osler House, have any questions, or feel you have ideas to contribute then please contact me or one of the members of the Osler House committee.

Obituaries GRANT BATES FRCS ( 1953–2011) Great memories How could you not love a guy who swam with sharks, who plunged near naked into the Med at Nice after we had skied that morning in the Pyrenees, and thirty years later soared from a rock into much deeper and colder Canadian waters in Halifax when visiting with Sue. Grant Bates leaves this world a much poorer place. He made the world of his family, countless friends and colleagues somewhere very good to be. Another golden boy from our year dies before his time, after a glorious life that has touched so many. We skied together many times, rowed in eights week and often laughed over memories of some hilarious Osler House rugby moments in that bygone era of the middle and late 1970s. I can see him now, hurtling along on a diagonal run across Trinity’s lovely ground in Marston. Old Marston, not a mile from that scene of triumphs and more losses, was where he settled in the last stages of a spectacular career in otolaryngology, spanning continents, spawning textbooks and providing inspiration for generations of young surgeons.

We should have known he was a bit special when he first showed up, looking like a Greek God in ’75. Against the tide he arrived in Oxford from London for his clinical training. He loved his spell at Merton and became something of a master of real tennis on that Elizabethan court, a game at which his son James has since excelled. It was wonderful to see Grant and Sue in Oxford this summer, albeit briefly and under the shadow of a new and devastating diagnosis, yet ever hopeful and positive, and to see him so delighted that James was home, training in surgery at the JR. Rebecca, his eldest, is my goddaughter and how chuffed we all were when she won international rowing honors and graced an evening with the ‘gang’ at one of our Spring reunions. Sue quite brilliantly kept Grant in check and gave him a wonderful home. This is a very special family and we mourn with you, Sue, Rebecca and James.

Grant was one of those fearless men for whom no new sport or challenge was too much. Sunday morning runs to Blenheim and drinks in the hot tub were simply routine. He will be mourned too in other waters. He spent time and effort beyond measure to raise awareness of the plight of the Great White in the worlds’ oceans and completed several London Marathons, once absurdly dressed as a shark, to raise money for a protective trust. No Christmas was complete without a new series of action photos and memories of birthday parties and wedding anniversaries at his home will bring smiles to many faces. Our doomed trip to Paris in 1980 with wives to be, to try (and fail) to watch France vs. England, is the stuff of family legend. Reliving another legend he bought an old Lotus this summer and raced it with Rebecca at Silverstone. He dived off the Great Barrier Reef in his Aussie days in Cairns, and just about anywhere else there was water. In classic Bates fashion he laughed off some air in his head a couple of years ago. Who knew he had a patent foramen ovale, challenged once too often in a decompression incident? Another one of ‘our gang’ fixed it for him, and all was well, until new events overtook him this summer.

How young we look in that photo of the two of us in tops and tails at his wedding, three decades ago. We drove there in his Morris Minor, Grant going round a roundabout near the church and not just once, to howls of laughter. We have always laughed and fooled around in a harmless way over the years. We tasted champagne at altitude in a hot air balloon and wisely wimped out of hang-gliding from the top of a French ski resort one sunny winter’s day. But I can’t laugh today, the day I heard from Sue that he had died peacefully a short while ago.

The tears flow instead and watered a special Rhododendron I planted this morning in my Nova Scotia garden that I hope will bring colour as he did and be loved as he was, for a lifetime.

Graeme Rocker

OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011 / 11

BRIAN BEyNON LLOyD, CBE, MA, DSC (1920–2010) Generations of Oxford medical students will recall being learning respiratory physiology from Brian Lloyd — the beard and bow tie (usually) and the larger than life personality. He died on 28 June 2010, aged 89.

Lloyd was born in Port Talbot, Wales, the son of a headmaster. His intellect and mathematical prowess won him a scholarship to Winchester where, his life-long friend Geoffrey Venning recalls, some younger scholars looked to Lloyd for advice rather than to their teachers, notably Freeman Dyson who followed Einstein at Princeton.

From Winchester Lloyd went up to Balliol in 1939 to read Chemistry and Physiology. He regarded war as morally repugnant and was a conscientious objector. During the Second World War he was employed by Hugh Sinclair, another Wykehamist scholar and Fellow of Magdalen, to work with the Oxford Nutrition Survey. As a conscientious objector Sinclair only had to pay him £2 a week, the rate for a land worker. At the end of the war this work took him to Holland and Germany to study famine and there he programmed bank Hollerith machines to store nutritional data from thousands of individuals. While there he met his future wife Reinhild, whom he married in 1949 and with whom he was to have seven children, including two sets of twins.

After returning to Oxford he became a Fellow of Magdalen and was subsequently Vice–President of the College and Proctor in the University. His major academic contribution was undoubtedly to Respiratory Physiology in which he had a very fruitful collaboration with the late Dan Cunningham of University College. His mathematical prowess facilitated all he did. Sir Roger Bannister, an early research student, recalls Lloyd rationalising a method of calculating pulmonary ventilation-perfusion ratios so that it took minutes rather than hours.

Undergraduates, and particularly Lloyd and Cunningham’s research students, will recall Lloyd’s modification of the Haldane apparatus for the analysis of respiratory gases which was commercially produced and used in physiology departments world-wide. Perhaps his greatest contribution to physiology was his algebraic description of the interactions of hypercapnia and hypoxia in the control of human ventilation. The parameters of the equation (A, B, C and D) gave quantitative estimates of the thresholds and sensitivity of individual subjects to each stimulus. At that time authors of papers in the Journal of Physiology were cited in alphabetical order leading some to the misconception that Cunningham was the senior author in what was in reality a synergistic collaboration of equals. Lloyd, with a wry smile, could be heard muttering “Cunningham calls it B” after the publication of a new edition of a well-known textbook of physiology which had fallen into this trap.

In 1965 he was president of the Physiology and Biochemistry Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and

used his presidential address to discuss the energetics of running in man and racehorses. His prediction of the effects on the 100 metres of reduced air resistance at altitude in Mexico City proved highly accurate but his brave forecasts of world record times 35 years later in 2000 were in the event somewhat optimistic.

His intellectual strength was matched by his skill as a craftsman. In his workshop at home he produced for example beautiful round dining tables for friends and family and Perspex respiratory valves of exceptionally low resistance and dead space. Visiting physiologists coveted these and some persuaded him to make one for them.

Needless to say the design of anything he made was optimised mathematically.

In 1961 Lloyd became a Governor of the Oxford College of Technology and in 1963 its Chairman. He drove developments which led to the College becoming one of the new Polytechnics and in 1970 Lloyd resigned his fellowship at Magdalen and became the first Director of the new Oxford Polytechnic. There he pioneered the development of modular degree courses, then a new venture, now widely adopted. He is remembered there, indeed by all who knew him well, as having encyclopaedic interests and knowledge combined with a formidable intellect – happy discussing carpentry, Old Masters, slide rules (he was an avid collector), English usage, exercise; virtually anything. Although he retired from the Polytechnic in 1980 before its transformation into Oxford Brookes University, Rodney Tulloch, former Academic Secretary at Brookes, said at Lloyd’s memorial service that it would hardly be an exaggeration to describe him as a founder (www.brookes.ac.uk/alumni_card/lloyd-memorial-service-nov-13.pdf).

The Lloyd Building at Brookes (recently demolished), which he opened himself in 1984, was named after him.

Lloyd was Chairman of the Health Education Council and was awarded the CBE in 1983 for his work in raising awareness of the hazards of smoking.

In 1970 Lloyd bought High Wall, Headington (www.headington.org.uk/ history/pullens_lane/high_wall.htm), which still belongs to his family and is bursting at the seams with all the items he collected including pictures, slide rules and ready reckoners, soldering irons, planes, a side saddle (!), gas analysis apparatus, files and papers going back to his school days.

He is survived by his wife, seven children and twelve grandchildren.

I am grateful for the help of Sir Roger Bannister, Professor Charles Michel, Professor John Stein, Mr Rodney Tulloch, Mrs Megan Turmezei and Doctors Geoffrey and Michael Venning in the preparation of this obituary. (In alphabetical order!)

Paul Miller

WILLIAM (BILL) SPENCER LUND MS FRCS (1926 – 2010) Bill Lund was a true gentleman and an ENT surgeon much loved by his patients and colleagues.

Born to non- medical parents he thought he might join the Navy and was accordingly educated at Pangbourne College. He then did his 1st MB at Nottingham where he was awarded his hockey blue. After National Service in the Navy, where he became a morse code expert, he enrolled at Guys Hospital. He played for the Guys 1st XV and developed his love of cricket. He did two pre-reg house jobs at Guys where he had the good fortune to meet a young nurse – Paddy soon to be his wife for the next 54 very happy years.

Bill decided on a career in ENT, demonstrated Anatomy at King’s, and as a Registrar at the Radcliffe Infirmary acquired the FRCS. It was here he developed his lifelong interest in swallowing and joined forces

with Gordon Ardran in the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research. Two and a half years research work both in Oxford and as a Fellow at the University Hospital, Iowa led to some very significant findings on the mechanism of the function of the cricopharyngeal sphincter particularly related to pharyngeal pouch development. For this work he was awarded his MS and appointed the Arris and Gale Lecturer at the Royal College of Surgeons in 1964. He was subsequently the author of many chapters and papers on swallowing problems.

From Iowa he returned as Senior Registrar at the Radcliffe Infirmary and then at the Middlesex Hospital where he was appointed Consultant ENT Surgeon in 1965. Ronald Macbeth then retired from Oxford in 1968 and Bill was successful in being appointed Consultant in Oxford in December 1968.

12 / OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011

Gavin Livingstone, who pioneered congenital ear reconstruction in the UK, died within a month of Bill being appointed and he immediately took over this challenging area of ENT. Over the years he treated, along with his colleague, Bernard Colman, a large number of children and adults some with defects left over from the Thalidomide disaster and introduced many new techniques to keep Oxford as the foremost department in this field. In 1987 Oxford was the first to use the new Swedish system of Bone Anchored Osseointegrated hearing aids and ear prostheses which revolutionised the management of those with congenital ear malformations.

In addition he continued his interest in the management of swallowing problems and particularly pharyngeal pouch surgery. This culminated in his election in 1987 as President of the Laryngology section of the RSM where he delivered a brilliant and entertaining address on the technique of sword swallowing!

He had a very large practice. His patients adored him and despite his clinics always over running none complained waiting patiently to see their wise, kindly and friendly surgeon.

He took a particular interest in teaching medical students. He became “His Rhinoplasty” of the Tyngewick Society and was taken off beautifully in one of the pantomimes where his characteristic ward

round habit of putting one foot up on the patients bed while pinning the patients legs with his fine leather brief case was depicted very well!

He retired in 1991 which allowed him more time for his golf. He was a member of Huntercombe, where he was allowed to take his border terrier, Scud (after the missiles used in the first Iraq conflict) but officially named Meg! Whether he trained her to spot his ball and help it to a better lie is not known! In addition he was a leading light and at one time Chairman of the Woodstock Players where he was equally happy as the pantomime dame, the spy– Anthony Blunt, or a bishop which fitted his natural mannerisms!

His patients all considered Bill as their friend and he was enormously popular with all who were fortunate to know him. He was a true gentleman surgeon. He died in 2010 and his thanksgiving service in Woodstock was completely packed with so many friends and colleagues all giving thanks for a man who lived life to the full and gave so much to so many.

He had a very happy family life and is survived by Paddy his adored wife of 54 years and their three children, Sarah, James and Kate and 6 much loved grandchildren.

Andrew Freeland

PROFESSOR DAVID GRAHAME GRAHAME-SMITH (1933–2011) Clinical pharmacologist who brought scientific rigour to clinical studies of the pharmacology of serotonin.

David Grahame Grahame-Smith was one of the UK’s leading clinical pharmacologists. His work on the pharmacology of the neurotransmitter serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) began with the identification of a key enzyme in its synthesis and continued over the next 35 years through a series of innovative and elegant experiments on its functions and its roles in depression and the human tumours that cause the carcinoid syndrome, on the clinical management of which he was an expert.

Born David Grahame Smith in Leicester in 1933, he studied medicine at St Mary’s Hospital in London from 1951. As a House Officer in Paddington General Hospital, he found himself in the company of four other David Smiths. In order to reduce the hospital switchboard’s constant confusion he changed his surname to Grahame-Smith. Some years later, criticizing the Lancet’s overuse of hyphens, he cited the Fowler brothers’ manual, The King’s English (1906): “Hyphens are regrettable necessities, and to be done without when they reasonably may.” His ability to laugh at himself in this way was a major asset when he had to tackle the many problems that Oxford clinical professors face.

After service in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he returned to St Mary’s to work with Albert Neuberger, the founder of glycoprotein research. For his PhD he identified tryptophan hydroxylase, the enzyme that catalyses the rate-limiting step in the synthesis of serotonin. A Medical Research Council Travelling Fellowship then took him to Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he worked with Grant Liddell, Bill Butcher, and Earl Sutherland (Nobel prize, 1971). Now well trained in clinical medicine and biochemical pharmacology, he returned to St Mary’s as Senior Lecturer in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. When the Medical Research Council established its Unit of Clinical Pharmacology in Oxford in 1971, he was the obvious choice as its Director.

Learning the sometimes Byzantine ways of the University of Oxford, the Medical Research Council, and Corpus Christi College, of which he was a Fellow, was no mean task. But the new MRC Unit and University Department of Clinical Pharmacology flourished under his direction, and attracted a wide range of both highly skilled

pharmacologists and clinicians. The Unit’s large output of scientific papers dealt not only with serotonin and psychopharmacology, but a wide range of other topics, including the pharmacology and clinical pharmacology of cardioactive and anticancer drugs and the physiology and pharmacology of transmembrane ion transport. He also mentored many young scientists, who delighted in his skilled direction and later achieved eminence elsewhere: two Presidents of the British Pharmacological Society and two Presidents of the British Association of Psychopharmacology spent significant parts of their careers in his department, and he trained several professors, both basic and clinical. He was a highly accomplished physician, and his consultant master classes were a popular feature of Oxford medicine during the 1990s. When in 1993 he reached the MRC’s age of retirement, the Unit closed, but the Department continued until his retirement in 2000, part funded by the pharmaceutical company SmithKline Beecham.

During his time in Oxford Grahame-Smith’s influence was felt widely. He was a loyal supporter of the British Pharmacological Society, and skilfully steered the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. He served on the Committee on Safety of Medicines (now the Commission on Human Medicines) from 1975 to 1986, and chaired its Safety, Efficacy, and Adverse Reactions (SEAR) subcommittee and two influential working parties, on guidelines for preclinical toxicity testing and on post-marketing surveillance. The latter resulted in what came to be known as the 1985 GrahameSmith report. He chaired the subgroup on hepatitis B immunization for the Joint Commission on Immunisation and Vaccination, and was the founding Chairman of the Government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. His visiting professorships included a trip to Beijing in 1985, during which he was delighted that the ballet-dancing talents of his wife were as much in demand as his own clinical and scientific ones, perhaps even more so.

His awards included an Anna Monika Stiftung Prize for Studies in Depression (with A R Green, 1977), the 1980 Paul Martini prize in Clinical Pharmacology (with J K Aronson and A R Ford), the Lilly Prize of the British Pharmacological Society in 1995, and the British Association of Psychopharmacology’s Lifetime Achievement award in 2002. He was appointed CBE in 1993.

OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011 / 13

If you wanted to find David Grahame-Smith in a crowd, you only had to follow the sound of laughter. His extracurricular interests were wide and often surprising. He was a strong swimmer and a vigorous player of water polo. He rode to hounds. He tap-danced with verve. He was a gently quirky cartoonist. And he was an accomplished pianist, whose jazz-playing friends saw him off at his funeral with “When the Saints Go Marching In”.

He leaves his wife, Kathryn, and two sons, Harvey and Henry.

Professor David Grahame Grahame-Smith, CBE, clinical pharmacologist, was born on 10 May 1933. He died on 17 June 2011, aged 78.

Jeffrey Aronson

With sadness December 2011 John Anthony Robert Anson b. 1927, matric. Christ Church 1945, d. 18 April 2011 Gareth de Bohun Mitford-Barberton, b. 1925 matric. St Edmund Hall d. 13 February 2011 aged 86. Born in Kenya, he worked as a doctor in Uganda, returning to England in 1962 to become Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist in Kettering and District.

After retiring, he spent five years collating the family letters and writings and assembling them into no less than forty volumes with the title Pioneer Spirit.

Derek F Barrow cliff b. 1919, matric. University College 1937 d. 21 September, aged 92, whilst out walking. In the late 1930s Derek Barrowcliff made his way to the Pyrenees to assist in the relief work for those fleeing the Spanish Civil War. He went to read Medicine at University College and while there he gained a half blue in lacrosse.

His work as a Home Office pathologist included the baffling case of the murder of Olive Bennett, which remains unsolved to this day, despite the News Of The World offering £100,000 in 1974 for information leading to the identity of the killer or killers. He also worked on the Stoneleigh Abbey poisoning case in 1969, when he detected signs of arsenic in the hair of the victim — the wife of the chauffeur employed at the Abbey. In the 1970s, his research on the propensity for corpses to bleed was quoted in the controversy over the authenticity of the Shroud of Turin. Barrowcliff gave an expert opinion when he showed that bodies bleed after death for a time, and demonstrated that cuts on the back of the head of a corpse (comparable to the wounds made by the Crown of Thorns) “would bleed freely”. His overriding passion — walking — was to continue throughout his life, and he was walking in the woods near Valbonne, France, when he died. Derek Barrowcliff is survived by his wife and their six children.

John Blandy b.1927 matric. Balliol 1946 d. 22 July 2011 aged 83.

CBE, FRCS, Emeritus Professor of Urology at the London Hospital Medical College. Balliol Honorary Fellow from 1992 to 2011. Born in Tenby, Blandy’s distinguished list of credentials included House Physician and House Surgeon, London Hospital, 1952; Royal Army Medical Corps, 1952–1953; Surgical Registrar and Lecturer in Surgery, London Hospital, 1956–1960, among many others. A member of the Council, Royal College of Surgeons from 1982–1994, Blandy also served as EAU Congress president from 1986–1988; president of the European Board of Urology (EBU) from 1991 to 1992 and member of the Council, General Medical Council, 1992–1996. Blandy also received in 2001, the EAU's highest honour, the Willy Gregoir Medal.

Francis Caird b. 1928; matric. 1946 New College, d. 26 June 2011 aged 82. Former professor of geriatric medicine University of Glasgow. Won a scholarship to Oxford, where he started reading classics before switching to medicine in his first year and gaining a first class honours degree. After qualifying and two years of national service, he worked in Oxford, Birmingham and at Hammersmith Hospital before he returned to the Radcliffe

Infirmary, in 1961 as senior registrar. In 1967 he moved to Scotland and became a senior lecturer in geriatric medicine at the University of Glasgow. He was appointed David Cargill Professor of Geriatric Medicine in 1979 and remained in this post until his retirement in 1994. He enjoyed combining clinical work with teaching and research. Throughout his working life he contributed articles on a regular basis to medical journals and wrote numerous books, often in collaboration with his Glasgow colleagues. He was keen on the development of multidisciplinary teams in the care of elderly people. After retirement he returned to Oxford and continued to work with the Parkinson’s disease Society and as an associate editor for Age and Ageing. Francis had a love of the classics throughout his life and was always able to read and enjoy texts in Ancient Greek.

Percy ‘Bruce’ S Fow ler b. Shanghai 1921; matric. Balliol 1940, d.

9 August 2011. Bruce Fowler was a medical polymath and former consultant physician Charing Cross Hospital. One of the last truly general physicians of English medicine, he balanced original research with teaching while the individual patient remained paramount in his work. Born to an American mother and a successful English businessman, he returned to England at the age of 3 and was looked after by his father’s chauffeur, who fed him raw suet and taught him to smoke Wills’s Woodbines. He continued in private practice until he was 82, when one of his oldest patients, on hearing him say “You look well today,” said “Don’t be ridiculous, Bruce, you cannot see me.” He retired that day, but continued to think and talk about medicine right up to his death. PubMed currently lists more than 88 publications to his name, and his last article on blood flow was published in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine when he was 84, a feat that only few achieve.

John William Goodfellow b. 1927 d. 2011 MS, FRCS, Consultant Orthopaedic Surgeon, Nuffield Orthopaedic Centre, 1965–1990, President, British Orthopaedic Association, 1988–89, Editor, Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery [Br], 1990–95.

Alfred Gunning d. 10 August 2011 aged 92. Former consultant cardiac surgeon at the John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals. Alf died peacefully at home. Devoted husband to Mollie and much loved father to Kevin, Andrew and Peta and grandfather of Jenny, Laura, William, Ollie, Nick and Sophie. An appreciation of his life will be published in Oxford Medicine in 2012.

Edmund Neville Hey b. 1 April 1934; matric. Exeter College 1953 d. from meningitis on 7 December 2009. Pioneer in the care of new born babies. His father, Max, was a mineralogist and keeper of minerals at the Natural History Museum the mineral heyite was named in recognition of his contributions. British paediatrics has lost a remarkable man whose talents were insufficiently recognised.

However, his legacy is a much better understanding of how to organise and care for new born babies. Predeceased by Susan in 1999, he leaves two daughters and a son.

14 / OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011

With sadness…

Leslie Le Quesne b. 1919 matric. Exeter Coll 1937 d. 5 August 2011 aged 91. Ex Hon Sec Oxford Graduates Medical Club (from which OMA emerged). Devoted to Oxford, Professor of Surgery and Head of Dept at Middlesex, he wrote state of the art papers on fluid balance in surgical practice. Whilst at the Middlesex Hospital, Le Quesne found that surgeons too often declared operations to have been a great success (from a technical point of view), only for the patient to die. Determined to address this contradiction, Le Quesne decided to investigate other factors that might affect survival rates.

Nutritional fitness for surgery, and the body’s response to the surgical onslaught, for example, had hardly been addressed. Under Le Quesne’s leadership a new generation of surgeons devoted itself to resolving these problems, particularly in the fields of electrolyte balance and hydration, as well as studying the response of the endocrine system. The result was a great improvement in survival rates following major surgery, and was fundamental in the establishment of intensive care units. As well as being a skilful surgeon, especially in the gastric and biliary field, Le Quesne rapidly acquired a reputation as a research scientist. Beyond pre- and postsurgical care, Le Quesne’s other great interest was in the diagnosis and prevention of deep vein thrombosis; the current use of elastic stockings to stimulate blood flow on long plane journeys arises directly from work carried out in his department at the Middlesex.

Married, late in life, Pamela Fullerton, Lady Margaret Hall, she was one time Professor of Neurology at NHQS and pre deceased him. A full obituary will appear in due course.

Dav id Francis Mullins matric. Trinity 1942, died 26th November 2011 aged 88.

John C. Probert b. 1931 matric. Keble 1951 d. 18 October 2011.

After working as Assistant Professor of Radiology at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California John Probert became Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology at Auckland University where he established the section of oncology in the Department of Pathology.

Peter Carew Rey nell b. 1917; matric. Balliol 1936, d. 27 June 2011 aged 83. Former consultant cardiologist Bradford. After qualification and four years in the Royal Army Medical Corps, Peter Carew Reynell worked in academic medicine at Oxford, researching liver diseases. He was awarded a Rockefeller travelling fellowship (1953) and was co-author with Sidney Truelove of “Digestive disease Disorders”. He moved to Bradford in 1957. While developing new arrangements for coronary care, he continued to publish in the BMJ until his retirement. He was first chair of the local division of medicine, and his numerous regional and national roles included vice chair of the National Association of Clinical Tutors; regional adviser to the Royal College of Physicians; director of the Yorkshire Cancer Research Campaign; chair of the Regional Higher Distinction Awards Committee; general medical adviser to the minister of health at the Department of Health; and external examiner at several universities. His greatest sporting achievement was to score a century at Lord’s for Rugby, his school, but tennis was his strongest suit (half-blue at Oxford). He had an astonishing range of interests and knowledge. A natural linguist, he led French and German conversation groups into his 90s, when he was also producing experimental abstract digital images.

Paul Sebastian Richardson b. matric. New College 1961, d. 2011 Physiologist.

Gerald Annesley Rutter b. 1930 matric. Keble 1949, d. July 8, 2011 aged 81, at Christchurch Hospital NZ. Barbara Shuttlew orth (née Nathan), b. 1922, matric. Somerville 1940; d. 16 June 2011. Aged 89.

David Skeggs, b. 1928 matric. Oriel 1946 d. December 22 aged 82.

At the Royal Free Hospital he led the team that developed computer-controlled precision radiotherapy, the technique which enables radiologists to focus radiation beams precisely on a tumour, leaving other, healthy, cells unaffected. Skeggs’s family and large circle of friends loved him for his sense of fun, his generosity of spirit and his willingness to give advice on all sorts of medical and health problems. His personal fight with cancer began 11 years ago, he remained well for 10 years, until the cancer returned last year.

David Skeggs married, in 1957, Anne Hughes, whom he had met while he was a student at Oxford. She and their two daughters survive him.

Kenneth Fletcher Malcolm Thomson b.1927 matric. 1945 Christ Church d. 4 January 2010 aged 84 from a chest infection. Dr Thomson began work an as ear, nose and throat registrar at the then York County Hospital before joining Dr Royle’s practice in York where he continued to work until his own retirement in 1988. Dr Thomson continued operating part-time at York District Hospital until 1992, and was President of York Medical Society in 1994–5.

In addition to his professional work, Dr Thomson was an active volunteer member of the York branch of St John’s Ambulance, eventually being made an Officer Brother of the Order of St John in 1991. Following the 1989 overthrow of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaucescu, Dr Thomson, his wife, Diana, and other York area volunteers helped a struggling orphanage in the town of Siret. He was a keen singer and performed with York Musical Society and in the York Mystery Plays in 1988. The majority of his spare time was spent tending and enjoying the garden of his family home in Fulford, but in his later years his activities were progressively restricted following his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s disease.

John Kingdom Guy Webb b. 29 October 1918; matric. Balliol 1937; d. 17 August 2010, aged 91. Former paediatrician and professor of child health in Newcastle upon Tyne. One of the first generation of doctors who specialised exclusively in the care of children. When he arrived in India only six of that massive country’s medical colleges had a children’s department and there was only a very small number of dedicated paediatricians. For the first five years in Vellore he was the only paediatrician, and, as well as a vast clinical workload of sick children he inspired and taught a new generation of doctors who would devote themselves to the care of children. In his research he and his group were the first to identify Japanese B virus as the cause of epidemics of encephalitis in Tamil Nadu and filarial infection as the hitherto unknown cause of epidemics of tropical eosinophilia, a common respiratory complaint. In 1972 he returned to the UK to be the James Spence Professor of Child Health in Newcastle after four years as director of the Medical College of Vellore. With Donald Irvine, he set up a major project to set standards of the care of children in general practice which was the forerunner of the current work to set standards for all aspects of medicine and for doctors to be regularly revalidated against these. After retirement, John pursued his love of tropical paediatrics with a post at Great Ormond Street Hospital, and he was director of the Child to Child programme in which children in developing countries were instructed in common health issues and encouraged to share what they had learnt with their family and others in their village.

John Marshall Wilson b. 1931 matric. Trinity 1951, d. 6 April 2011, aged 79. He practised medicine all his life mostly as a GP in Pershore and retired at the age of 60. He often recalled his time at Trinity College and his rowing days there — he rowed for Oxford in 1953 and in 1955 in the Oxford/Cambridge boat race.

OXFORD MEDICINE . DECEMBER 2011 / 15

ALUMNI EVENTS 2012 2nd – 4th March Australian Reunion Roger Bodley, Peter Morris and Peter Teddy are convening a reunion from 2nd to 4th March 2012 for anyone who has studied or taught medicine at Oxford and who is now living or working in Australia and New Zealand. We would encourage as many of you as possible to come.

This reunion is to be held at Cradle Mountain in Tasmania over the weekend of 2nd to 4th March 2012 at the Cradle Mountain Lodge.

It would be very helpful if you were to tell any other Oxford medical alumni about the reunion. The distance from Oxford means that we want to manage this using electronic means and ask that you give us your email address so we can get information out as quickly as possible. If you want to contact us about the reunion or are able to help with the organisation please contact: oma@medsci.ox.ac.uk

2012 13th – 15th April University of Oxford North American Reunion The reunion will take place at the Waldorf Astoria in New York.

The programme and more information will be available on the OMA website: w w w.m e dsci.o x.ac.uk /om a/e v e nts New York photographs by Katherine Black

2012 12th May Oxford Spring Meeting The meeting will include the Weatherall Lecture 2012 to be given by Professor Nicholas White. We are delighted that Professor Dame Valerie Beral and Professor Sir Rory Collins will also be speaking. The meeting will be followed by the Oxford Spring Dinner which will take place in the splendid surroundings of the Divinity School. The reunion years are those qualifying in 1986 and 1987.

Professor White is Chairman of the Wellcome Trust South East Asian Research Units, Professor of Tropical Medicine at Oxford and at Mahidol University, Bangkok, and Consultant physician at the John Radcliffe Hospital. His diverse interests include the epidemiology, pathophysiology and management of uncomplicated and severe malaria, meliodosis, enteric fever, tetanus, dengue haemorrhagic fever, Japanese encephalitis and tuberculosis. His particular interests at present include the pathophysiology and treatment of severe malaria and the prevention of antimalarial drug resistance using artemisinin-based combinations.

Professor Dame Valerie Beral is Professor of Epidemiology, Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit, and a Consultant Physician.

She studied medicine at Sydney University, Australia. After a few years of clinical work in Australia, New Guinea and the UK, she spent almost 20 years at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine working in the Department of Epidemiology. In 1988 she became the Director of the Cancer Epidemiology Unit in Oxford. Major focuses of her research include the

role of reproductive, hormonal and infectious agents in cancer. She is Principal Investigator for the 'Million Women Study' and leads the international collaborative studies of breast, ovarian and endometrial cancer.

In 1985 Professor Sir Rory Collins became codirector, with Professor Sir Richard Peto, of the University of Oxford's Clinical Trial Service Unit & Epidemiological Studies Unit (CTSU). In 1996 he was appointed Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at Oxford, supported by the British Heart Foundation.

He became Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of the UK Biobank prospective study of 500,000 people in September 2005. His work has been in the establishment of large-scale epidemiological studies of the causes, prevention and treatment of heart attacks, other vascular disease, and cancer.

We are pleased that Dr Allan Chapman has agreed to give this year's talk on the history of medicine at Oxford.

In the evening the OM A S p ri ng Di nne r will be held in the beautiful surroundings of the Divinity School in the evening on 12 May 2012.

All alumni are invited to attend this very special occasion.

The programme and information on how to book for the meeting and for the reunion will be available at: w w w.medsci.ox.ac.uk/oma/ev ents

2012 14th – 16th September Oxford Alumni Weekend Meeting

Contacting OMA Address: Oxford Medical Alumni Medical Sciences Office John Radcliffe Hospital Oxford OX3 9DU Email: jayne.todd@medsci.ox.ac.uk Website: www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/oma Enquiries: 01865 221690 Fax: 01865 750750

The 2012 Oxford Alumni Weekend w ill feature medical issues prominently in a fascinating programme of more than 120 tours, talks and w alks. The "Oxford Osler Lecture and Lunch" for medical alumni will take place on the Saturday of the w eekend. There w ill be Reunions for those qualify ing in 1987, and in 1972 or earlier.

The full programme will be published as soon as possible.

2012 REUNIONS

—Invitations will be sent so please make sure we have your current contact details.

• Saturday 12 th May 2012 1977 A Reunion for those w ho qualified 35 y ears ago will take place a part of the OMA Spring Meeting. Guests and Partners are most welcome. This reunion will take place at the Divinity School.

• Saturday 26 th May 2012 2002 A Reunion for those w ho qualified 10 y ears ago. This reunion will include a Family Tea Party for alumni and their young children which will take place at Osler House in the afternoon. There will be a formal dinner in Oxford in the evening. Guests and Partners are most welcome.

More information on OMA events can be found at www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/oma/events

—k— Information on Oxford University alumni events can be found at www.alumni.ox.ac.uk

• Friday 14th September 2012 1987 A Reunion for those who qualified 25 years ago will take place as part of the University Alumni Weekend. Guests and Partners are most welcome.

• Saturday 15 th September 2012 1972 and earlier A Reunion for those who qualified 40 or more y ears ago will take place during the annual University Alumni Weekend in September 2012. Guests and partners are most welcome.

G

Further information about alumni events inside the back page Australian Reunion•University of Oxford North American Reunion•Oxford Spring Meeting More OMA events at w w w.m ed sci.o x .ac.uk/o m a /e v ent s

Oxford Medicine is produced by the Medical Informatics Unit, NDCLS, University of Oxford. Telephone +44 (0)1865 222746.

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