BMJ 2013;347:f6321 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f6321 (Published 23 October 2013)
Page 1 of 2
Observations
OBSERVATIONS BMJ CONFIDENTIAL
Michael Rawlins: Pet hate is the Daily Mail In the second of its new series of interviews with some of the movers and shakers of the medical world the BMJ asked the recently retired chairman of NICE about work, life, and less serious matters
Who is the person you would most like to thank and why? Lord (John) Walton for appointing me to the Ruth and Lionel Jacobson chair of clinical pharmacology at Newcastle, in 1973, and remaining my guardian, guide, and friend ever since.
To whom would you most like to apologise? What was your earliest ambition? I very much enjoyed biology at school, but in those days there wasn’t much you could do with biology, or so said my school, except go on to study medicine.
Who has been your biggest inspiration? George Godber, the real architect of the NHS and the greatest of all chief medical officers. He is famously alleged to have said, “When a doctor sees a patient in the consulting room she (or he) must also think of the ones in the waiting room.”
What was the worst mistake in your career?
To the late Professor William (Bill) Cranston for never thanking him, during his lifetime, for teaching me everything I know about clinical research.
If you were given £1m, what would you spend it on? I would give it all away. A third to the charities that are closest to my heart; and the other two thirds (divided equally) to my three daughters.
Where are or were you happiest? In the country cottage we used to own near Bamburgh, in Northumberland, with views of the magnificent castle from the bedroom windows.
One of my friends told me, at the time I was appointed chairman of NICE, that I was making the greatest mistake of my career. Five years later he had the decency to say, “Get out, now, while you’re ahead!”
What single unheralded change has made the most difference in your field in your lifetime?
What was your best career move?
Genetics, but more specifically pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics. Their full impact has yet to be realised, but they will revolutionise the practice of therapeutics.
Becoming the first chairman of NICE.
Bevan or Lansley? Who was the best and the worst health secretary in your lifetime? The best, of course, were Frank Dobson and Alan Milburn for creating NICE in the first place and then for letting Andrew Dillon and me get on with it without interfering. The worst was Enoch Powell who, as minister of health, failed to take any action when the thalidomide disaster occurred. For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
Do you believe in doctor assisted suicide? I would favour a change in the law to allow this with appropriate safeguards.
What book should every doctor read? Liza of Lambeth by W Somerset Maugham, written while he was a medical student at St Thomas’ Hospital. It is the finest of all his literary works. Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
BMJ 2013;347:f6321 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f6321 (Published 23 October 2013)
Page 2 of 2
OBSERVATIONS
Biography Michael Rawlins is the rock on which the contrary tides of opinion have dashed themselves since he and Andrew Dillon established the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), as it was then called, in 1999. As NICE’s chairman until March 2013 Rawlins never wavered in his determination that evidence alone should determine how NHS money was spent, nor in his good humour in defending this sometimes unpopular position. A clinical pharmacologist, he had previously chaired the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Since leaving NICE he has chaired the Royal College of Physicians’ Future Hospitals programme. He is 72.
What poem, song, or passage of prose would you like mourners at your funeral to hear?
me. Talking to my daughter, in my absence, he said, “He’s like Nelson Mandela: charming on the outside and as tough as fucking nails on the inside.” Frank is a personal friend of Mandela, so it was an interesting comparison.
No poems, songs, or passages of prose, thank you, just music. Elgar’s Enigma Variations, perhaps.
Where does alcohol fit into your life?
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
A glass or two of (red) wine in the evening and a lunchtime pint of real ale (not that lager rubbish) at weekends.
Chocolate (dark) truffles.
If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do? I would sneak into Buckingham Palace, on a late Tuesday afternoon, and listen in to the conversations between the prime minister and the Queen at their weekly meetings. What do they talk about? What does he tell her? What does she say to him?
Clarkson or Clark? Would you rather watch Top Gear or Civilisation? My only interest in cars is to get me from A to B. I gave away my last car to one of my daughters. But Clark’s Civilisation series was magnificent.
Your most treasured possession? A copy of William Blake’s The Ancient of Days given to me by a very special friend for my 70th birthday.
What personal ambition do you still have? To be able, either directly or indirectly, to continue to have the opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives.
Summarise your personality in three words
What is your pet hate? The Daily Mail.
What would be on the menu for your last supper? Giant prawns, fillet of beef (from America), and a rich chocolate dessert, all washed down with a bottle of the 1996 Chateau Lafite.
Have you any regrets about becoming a doctor, epidemiologist, medical scientist, academic, and politician? I’ve been involved with all five of these professional activities, and the experiences I gained from them were invaluable to me at NICE. My regret is that at the time I was involved with them I didn’t appreciate how important they would become.
If you weren’t in your present role, what would you be doing instead? I’ve no idea. I never had a career plan. I just drifted from one opportunity to another. Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f6321 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2013
I can’t summarise it in three words, but I could quote the words that the former health secretary Frank Dobson used to describe
For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
Page 1 of 2
Observations
OBSERVATIONS BMJ CONFIDENTIAL
Michael Rawlins: Pet hate is the Daily Mail In the second of its new series of interviews with some of the movers and shakers of the medical world the BMJ asked the recently retired chairman of NICE about work, life, and less serious matters
Who is the person you would most like to thank and why? Lord (John) Walton for appointing me to the Ruth and Lionel Jacobson chair of clinical pharmacology at Newcastle, in 1973, and remaining my guardian, guide, and friend ever since.
To whom would you most like to apologise? What was your earliest ambition? I very much enjoyed biology at school, but in those days there wasn’t much you could do with biology, or so said my school, except go on to study medicine.
Who has been your biggest inspiration? George Godber, the real architect of the NHS and the greatest of all chief medical officers. He is famously alleged to have said, “When a doctor sees a patient in the consulting room she (or he) must also think of the ones in the waiting room.”
What was the worst mistake in your career?
To the late Professor William (Bill) Cranston for never thanking him, during his lifetime, for teaching me everything I know about clinical research.
If you were given £1m, what would you spend it on? I would give it all away. A third to the charities that are closest to my heart; and the other two thirds (divided equally) to my three daughters.
Where are or were you happiest? In the country cottage we used to own near Bamburgh, in Northumberland, with views of the magnificent castle from the bedroom windows.
One of my friends told me, at the time I was appointed chairman of NICE, that I was making the greatest mistake of my career. Five years later he had the decency to say, “Get out, now, while you’re ahead!”
What single unheralded change has made the most difference in your field in your lifetime?
What was your best career move?
Genetics, but more specifically pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics. Their full impact has yet to be realised, but they will revolutionise the practice of therapeutics.
Becoming the first chairman of NICE.
Bevan or Lansley? Who was the best and the worst health secretary in your lifetime? The best, of course, were Frank Dobson and Alan Milburn for creating NICE in the first place and then for letting Andrew Dillon and me get on with it without interfering. The worst was Enoch Powell who, as minister of health, failed to take any action when the thalidomide disaster occurred. For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
Do you believe in doctor assisted suicide? I would favour a change in the law to allow this with appropriate safeguards.
What book should every doctor read? Liza of Lambeth by W Somerset Maugham, written while he was a medical student at St Thomas’ Hospital. It is the finest of all his literary works. Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
BMJ 2013;347:f6321 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f6321 (Published 23 October 2013)
Page 2 of 2
OBSERVATIONS
Biography Michael Rawlins is the rock on which the contrary tides of opinion have dashed themselves since he and Andrew Dillon established the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), as it was then called, in 1999. As NICE’s chairman until March 2013 Rawlins never wavered in his determination that evidence alone should determine how NHS money was spent, nor in his good humour in defending this sometimes unpopular position. A clinical pharmacologist, he had previously chaired the Committee on Safety of Medicines and the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs. Since leaving NICE he has chaired the Royal College of Physicians’ Future Hospitals programme. He is 72.
What poem, song, or passage of prose would you like mourners at your funeral to hear?
me. Talking to my daughter, in my absence, he said, “He’s like Nelson Mandela: charming on the outside and as tough as fucking nails on the inside.” Frank is a personal friend of Mandela, so it was an interesting comparison.
No poems, songs, or passages of prose, thank you, just music. Elgar’s Enigma Variations, perhaps.
Where does alcohol fit into your life?
What is your guiltiest pleasure?
A glass or two of (red) wine in the evening and a lunchtime pint of real ale (not that lager rubbish) at weekends.
Chocolate (dark) truffles.
If you could be invisible for a day, what would you do? I would sneak into Buckingham Palace, on a late Tuesday afternoon, and listen in to the conversations between the prime minister and the Queen at their weekly meetings. What do they talk about? What does he tell her? What does she say to him?
Clarkson or Clark? Would you rather watch Top Gear or Civilisation? My only interest in cars is to get me from A to B. I gave away my last car to one of my daughters. But Clark’s Civilisation series was magnificent.
Your most treasured possession? A copy of William Blake’s The Ancient of Days given to me by a very special friend for my 70th birthday.
What personal ambition do you still have? To be able, either directly or indirectly, to continue to have the opportunity to make a difference to people’s lives.
Summarise your personality in three words
What is your pet hate? The Daily Mail.
What would be on the menu for your last supper? Giant prawns, fillet of beef (from America), and a rich chocolate dessert, all washed down with a bottle of the 1996 Chateau Lafite.
Have you any regrets about becoming a doctor, epidemiologist, medical scientist, academic, and politician? I’ve been involved with all five of these professional activities, and the experiences I gained from them were invaluable to me at NICE. My regret is that at the time I was involved with them I didn’t appreciate how important they would become.
If you weren’t in your present role, what would you be doing instead? I’ve no idea. I never had a career plan. I just drifted from one opportunity to another. Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f6321 © BMJ Publishing Group Ltd 2013
I can’t summarise it in three words, but I could quote the words that the former health secretary Frank Dobson used to describe
For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
