Professor Philip Sambrook – Obituary

Abstract

It is with great sadness that I report the passing of my colleague and friend, Philip Sambrook, who died after a fight against ocular melanoma on 31st March 2012. Philip will not only be remembered as the first Editor-in-Chief of this journal, but also for his major clinical and scientific contributions to the field of rheumatology in general and osteoporosis in particular. I first met Philip in the early 1980s when he was working at Northwick Park Hospital in London – we met in Edinburgh and had a wonderful day discussing the effects of glucocorticoids on bone, a meeting we were going to repeat on numerous occasions over the subsequent 30 years. Over those years Philip made enormous contributions, not just in glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis, but also in the epidemiology and genetics of osteoporosis (via the Dubbo Osteoporosis Epidemiology Study and his work on Australian twins) and transplant osteoporosis. Later in his career he developed a great interest on the causes and prevention of morbidity and mortality in the elderly after fracture. He authored over 300 peer-reviewed publications and continued to contribute to papers in the last few months of his life. His publication record led to a really impressive H-factor of 63. Philip was recognised for his outstanding contributions to osteoporosis research by a large number of awards and prizes, most notably the Parr Prize from the Australian Rheumatology Association in 1988, the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in 2008 and most recently the Distinguished Service award from the Institute of Bone and Joint Research in 2011. He was also recognised by his peers as a leader, for example as the President of the Australia and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society (2007–2009), and a co-founder and president of the Asia Pacific Osteoporosis Foundation. He was a Board Member and the first Medical Director of Osteoporosis Australia (the Australian Osteoporosis Patient society), member of the Board of Directors of The International Bone and Mineral Society and a member of the Committee of Scientific Advisors of the International Osteoporosis Foundation. All of these awards and positions show the esteem in which Philip was held by his peers. That esteem was not only because of his scientific contributions, his leadership and the exemplary clinical care of his patients, but because he was a thoroughly nice man. He will be sorely missed by so many and a very hard act to follow as Editor-in-Chief of this journal.