Robert Platt, Baron Platt

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Robert Platt, Baron Platt ( April 16, 1900 - June 30, 1978 ) was a British doctor and member of the House of Lords .

Professional career

Robert Platt was born in Marylebone and came from a family that had no connection to the natural sciences , but was socially engaged and interested in music. His parents founded a co-educational boarding school in Grindleford , which he attended himself. He graduated from Sheffield University in 1963 with honors. In 1931 he became an assistant doctor at the Royal Infirmary Sheffield and in 1934 a doctor. From 1941 to 1944 he served as a doctor in the British Army, in Great Britain, North Africa, Italy and India. He was a dedicated supporter of the National Health Service .

Robert Platt specialized in kidney disease research . He was best known in the 1940s and 1950s for his scientific discussion with his friend and medical professor Sir George Pickering about high blood pressure , known as the Pickering versus Platt debate .

“In the dispute about the genetic basis of hypertension, Platt took the view that blood pressure was based on a discontinuous distribution; larger hypertensive genes would be inherited as Mendelian traits. Pickering, on the other hand, argued that hypertension was at the upper end of a normal distribution of blood pressure; a whole series of genes have a small effect on an intermediate phenotype, which - if it exceeds an arbitrarily defined limit - ultimately leads to hypertension. "

- Karsten Lunze : The genetics of hypertension. P. 3
The new building of the Royal College of Physicians

In 1946, Platt became head of the Central Manchester Health Authority , which he significantly expanded; from 1949 to 1959 he was a professor at the University of Manchester . In 1957 he became President of the Royal College of Physicians . During this presidency he was instrumental in the writing and publication of the first College Report on Smoking and Health , in which the causal relationship was presented comprehensively for the first time worldwide. During his tenure, the seat of the college was rebuilt on Regent's Park - the architect was Denys Lasdun - and inaugurated in 1964 by the Queen, after which Platt resigned from his post. He also introduced numerous further training events for doctors at the Colloge. In addition to his professional activities, he was involved in several medical associations and committees such as the Eugenics Society , the Family Planning Association , the ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) and the National Society for the Abolition of Cruel Sports . He was also a member of several music associations as he played the cello himself . He was considered a dynamic and humanistic personality who devotedly cared for their patients.

Honor and death

On July 14, 1959, Platt was promoted to Baronet Platt of Grindleford and in January 1967 to Life Peer . In the eleven years up to his death he took an active part in the meetings of the House of Lords, at which he sat apart because, according to his own statements, he represented not party interests but those of medicine. He died in hospital of a fractured femur after falling on the stairs of the Royal College of Physicians . According to his will, there was no funeral service, but a concert in his honor. In an obituary for Platt it said:

“ He was one of the great figures in British medicine over the last half century, yet a humane, approachable and kind man. He was able to show authority, but never failed to hear the point of view of others and give them weight. He stood by his opinion on some controversial issues, but he never tried to impose these on others. He became a widely respected public figure. In every generation of medical professionals there are a few who are recognized by the wider public not only as a significant figure in their profession, but as men or women of stature in the world outside, capable of wider vision. Robert was such a person. "

- Website of the Royal College of Physicians

Publications

  • Nephritis and Allied Diseases Their Pathogeny and Treatment . Oxford University Press. 1934
  • Doctor and patient. Ethics, morals, government. London. Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust, 1963
  • Private and Controversial . Autobiography. London. Cassell 1972

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Karsten Lunze: The genetics of hypertension. A new blood pressure regulating QTL on chromosome 6 of the hypertension model SHRSP. Dissertation, FU Berlin. 2005.
  2. ^ London Gazette, January 17, 1967. Retrieved June 27

literature

  • JD Swales: Platt versus Pickering: an episode in recent medical history. Keynes Press London 1985, ISBN 0-7279-0191-5

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Platt, Robert, Baron Platt
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British doctor
DATE OF BIRTH April 16, 1900
DATE OF DEATH June 30, 1978