- Email: [email protected]
Offline: What makes a good professor?
Comment
Offline: What makes a good professor?
Roger Williams is the UK’s greatest living hepatologist. And now the grandmaster of liver medicine has launched a new chapter in his indefatigable career— a newly independent Institute of Hepatology, affiliated to Birkbeck College at the University of London. The Institute began its life in 1997. But with recently opened and considerably expanded laboratory space, together with newly acquired autonomy, its work, directed by Prof Williams, will embrace viral hepatitis, liver failure, hepatotoxicity, fatty liver disease, and liver cancer. * 2011 is the tenth anniversary of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Thanks to the generosity of Chatham House and a team led by Prof David Heymann, Head of its Centre on Global Health Security, the www.thelancet.com Vol 378 December 17/24/31, 2011
Corbis Johnny Green/PA Archive/Press Association Images Bloomberg via Getty Images
*
Commission’s achievements were celebrated and scrutinised last week in London. The Commission’s chairman, Prof Jeffrey Sachs, gave the keynote address, and several commissioners—Richard Feachem, Dean Jamison, Nora Lustig, and Anne Mills—were present to debate the present and future implications of the Commission’s findings. There have been many critics of the Commission. Its narrow focus on infectious diseases marginalised the importance of non-communicable diseases, say some. Its framing of disease in exclusively macroeconomic terms ignored the social determinants of health, say others. And its failure to renew a movement for primary health care was a betrayal of “health for all”, say still others. All these arguments are fair. But Jeff Sachs was uncompromising. “I don’t accept any of the carping”, he said. His critics were “disingenuous.” True, the Commission may not have succeeded in everything, but (and here Sachs quoted his experiences in the Oval Office and 10 Downing Street) it “definitely accomplished a lot”, it was “a bit of a breakthrough”, and it did “play a fundamental role” in shaping political debates around health. The Commission was nothing less than “science-based politics” in “a world that was doing almost nothing”. “We still live in such a world”, he said. He spoke about political evil, the failures of President Obama (compared with the successes of President Bush), and he unflinchingly argued that “global health works”. Sachs occupies a different world to most of us. His reach across celebrity (Bono has his telephone number) and politics far exceeds the influence any of us could ever hope to achieve. This insider status creates enemies. And sometimes he does oversimplify. But enormous progress has been made through great science and passionate advocacy since the Commission was launched. This achievement deserves rich recognition, especially as we enter a new decade of struggle. It is not, as one very senior speaker tried to argue, simply “motherhood and apple pie”. * A holiday quiz. Who is the reluctant professor in the picture? The prize? A subscription to The Lancet (not much I know). Sorry for that. See you in 2012.
Richard Horton
Linsey Henshaw, from the public relations firm Bell Pottinger, writes: “Dear Richard, I would like to suggest an article for The Lancet. This would be written by Patricia Hodgkinson, CEO of Alpha Hospitals and Dr John Livesley, Professor, Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia. Please find below a short summary. Please can you review and let me know if you think this would be of interest to you?” The article is entitled “Radical change to personality disorder treatment in the UK”. The summary extols the virtues of Alpha Hospitals, which are apparently “transforming the way [the NHS] delivers Personality Disorder care to improve health outcomes and reduce costs for the NHS”. Prof Livesley is a “leading psychiatrist specialising in personality disorders” and is now “an honorary advisor and mentor at Alpha Hospitals”. Two points are worth noting. First, the UK’s Care Quality Commission is far less enthusiastic than Bell Pottinger about Alpha Hospitals as a private sector provider to the NHS. Writing in September, 2011, about Alpha’s Woking facility, the regulator noted: “Alpha Hospitals-Woking was not meeting one or more essential standards. Improvements are needed.” Second, Prof Livesley, as a former editor of the Journal of Personality Disorders, should surely not be submitting a paper to a journal through a “disgraced” public relations company and in co-authorship with a private sector business that is providing substandard NHS care.
Richard Horton [email protected]
2061
Offline: What makes a good professor?
Roger Williams is the UK’s greatest living hepatologist. And now the grandmaster of liver medicine has launched a new chapter in his indefatigable career— a newly independent Institute of Hepatology, affiliated to Birkbeck College at the University of London. The Institute began its life in 1997. But with recently opened and considerably expanded laboratory space, together with newly acquired autonomy, its work, directed by Prof Williams, will embrace viral hepatitis, liver failure, hepatotoxicity, fatty liver disease, and liver cancer. * 2011 is the tenth anniversary of the Commission on Macroeconomics and Health. Thanks to the generosity of Chatham House and a team led by Prof David Heymann, Head of its Centre on Global Health Security, the www.thelancet.com Vol 378 December 17/24/31, 2011
Corbis Johnny Green/PA Archive/Press Association Images Bloomberg via Getty Images
*
Commission’s achievements were celebrated and scrutinised last week in London. The Commission’s chairman, Prof Jeffrey Sachs, gave the keynote address, and several commissioners—Richard Feachem, Dean Jamison, Nora Lustig, and Anne Mills—were present to debate the present and future implications of the Commission’s findings. There have been many critics of the Commission. Its narrow focus on infectious diseases marginalised the importance of non-communicable diseases, say some. Its framing of disease in exclusively macroeconomic terms ignored the social determinants of health, say others. And its failure to renew a movement for primary health care was a betrayal of “health for all”, say still others. All these arguments are fair. But Jeff Sachs was uncompromising. “I don’t accept any of the carping”, he said. His critics were “disingenuous.” True, the Commission may not have succeeded in everything, but (and here Sachs quoted his experiences in the Oval Office and 10 Downing Street) it “definitely accomplished a lot”, it was “a bit of a breakthrough”, and it did “play a fundamental role” in shaping political debates around health. The Commission was nothing less than “science-based politics” in “a world that was doing almost nothing”. “We still live in such a world”, he said. He spoke about political evil, the failures of President Obama (compared with the successes of President Bush), and he unflinchingly argued that “global health works”. Sachs occupies a different world to most of us. His reach across celebrity (Bono has his telephone number) and politics far exceeds the influence any of us could ever hope to achieve. This insider status creates enemies. And sometimes he does oversimplify. But enormous progress has been made through great science and passionate advocacy since the Commission was launched. This achievement deserves rich recognition, especially as we enter a new decade of struggle. It is not, as one very senior speaker tried to argue, simply “motherhood and apple pie”. * A holiday quiz. Who is the reluctant professor in the picture? The prize? A subscription to The Lancet (not much I know). Sorry for that. See you in 2012.
Richard Horton
Linsey Henshaw, from the public relations firm Bell Pottinger, writes: “Dear Richard, I would like to suggest an article for The Lancet. This would be written by Patricia Hodgkinson, CEO of Alpha Hospitals and Dr John Livesley, Professor, Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia. Please find below a short summary. Please can you review and let me know if you think this would be of interest to you?” The article is entitled “Radical change to personality disorder treatment in the UK”. The summary extols the virtues of Alpha Hospitals, which are apparently “transforming the way [the NHS] delivers Personality Disorder care to improve health outcomes and reduce costs for the NHS”. Prof Livesley is a “leading psychiatrist specialising in personality disorders” and is now “an honorary advisor and mentor at Alpha Hospitals”. Two points are worth noting. First, the UK’s Care Quality Commission is far less enthusiastic than Bell Pottinger about Alpha Hospitals as a private sector provider to the NHS. Writing in September, 2011, about Alpha’s Woking facility, the regulator noted: “Alpha Hospitals-Woking was not meeting one or more essential standards. Improvements are needed.” Second, Prof Livesley, as a former editor of the Journal of Personality Disorders, should surely not be submitting a paper to a journal through a “disgraced” public relations company and in co-authorship with a private sector business that is providing substandard NHS care.
Richard Horton [email protected]
2061