17 July 2012
Professor Sir Michael Rawlins inaugurated as President of the Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine today announces the inauguration of Professor Sir Michael Rawlins as President. Chairman of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence since its formation in 1999 and due to step down in March 2013, Sir Michael takes over the Society’s presidency from Professor Parveen Kumar.
After training at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School where he also began his research career, Sir Michael trained to become a clinical pharmacologist at the Hammersmith Hospital before spending a year as an MRC Travelling Fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. At the age of 32 he was appointed Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne where he remained until 2006. At the same time he held the position of consultant physician and consultant clinical pharmacologist to the Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust.
Sir Michael will focus on three areas during his term as RSM President:
- seeking dialogue with professions with whom the RSM does not yet fully engage, including clinical pharmacists, statisticians and health economists
- encouraging greater involvement with the RSM’s overseas members, in particular the USA where the Society has over 1,300 Fellows
- developing the RSM’s flourishing Global Health Programme to ensure its future sustainability.
Sir Michael said: “The RSM is a remarkable organisation and I am honoured to have been elected President. The interdisciplinary nature of the Society’s meetings, its library resources and emerging outreach programmes such as Global Health and engagement with children from disadvantaged backgrounds considering a career in medicine, are all to be cherished. Ultimately, though, the RSM flourishes from the commitment, drive, enthusiasm and support of its 23,000 plus membership and I am looking forward to meeting and working with many members during my two years in office.”
He added: “On behalf of everyone at the RSM I would like to thank Professor Parveen Kumar who as my predecessor has guided the Society with such strength and integrity during her term as President.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
For further information contact:
Rosalind Dewar
Royal Society of Medicine Media Office
T: 01580 764713
M: 07785 182732
E: media@rsm.ac.uk
The Royal Society of Medicine is one of the country's major providers of postgraduate medical education for doctors, dentists, vets and other health professionals. As well as providing education, the Society aims to promote an exchange of information and ideas on the science, practice and organisation of medicine, both within the health professions and with responsible and informed public opinion. The Society is not a policy-making body and does not issue guidelines or standards of care. It has nearly 60 Sections which each provide a multi-disciplinary forum for discussion and debate. Sections cover disciplines as diverse as medical genetics and clinical hypnosis. Over 450 academic and public meetings are held at the RSM every year. The Society publishes a number of journals, including the Society's flagship monthly, the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. The Society's library is the second largest postgraduate medical library in the world.
