My medical practice: mentors and perspectives

Abstract

I was only the second of my family to go to university. Almost from infancy my mother would describe me as ‘my son, the doctor to be’. My brother and I went as choral scholars to Southwell Minster choir school, perfect Anthony Trollope country.1 Sport, especially long distance running and science proved to be my lifelong interests, leading to Edinburgh University and the exciting life of medicine. A bonus in our first term was to meet my future wife Jenny, companion, friend, Consultant Psychiatrist and mother of our four children. Together we joined a medical community who still meet regularly as friends and to help and support each other. After graduating I studied biochemistry, before training as a physician in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. I was appointed as Consultant Gastroenterologist at the Western General Hospital, Edinburgh in 1969. The appointment was a mix of academia and clinical practice. The prime project was to study the physiology and role of dietary fibre in the aetiology, prevention and treatment of a long list of diseases. A big, even improbable task.2 So what was my perception of a model Physician? I was fortunate to work for such first rate chiefs in the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Ranald Murray-Lyon and Professor Ronald Girdwood. However, the ideal for me was Sir John Halliday …