Who is David?
My PHILOSOPHY of Life
I have seen a flood of unimagined medical advances in my lifetime. The candle lit for me in my eleventh year. Even at this tender age I was caught in the post-war mood of ‘let us build a new future’. I was inspired by the voice of UK Minister Nye Bevan who brought free health care to all. I was overwhelmed by the joy on the faces of ladies with new teeth and then the pride of coal miners with Charnley replacement hips. This was a brave new world progressing to a happy future.
Since World War 2 our warlike species has basked in decades of relative peace, increased living standards, economic progress and less poverty. Doctors could see progress forever in the conquest of disease.
Indeed, political philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy writes that humanity has always had a sense of a future that may be better, however bad the present. Since the beginning of history, there was always a time when no one could suspect that time could end, except in metaphysical terms. Not any more, it is impending with the inter-related fragmentation of international collectivism and cooperation linked with the impending climate and environmental crises and their generation of pandemics. Humanity has failed to grasp this trajectory; our democracies are paralysed by the complexity of the problems and the ideology of economic growth from the plunder of the environment.
How does one cope with the impending collapse of our life support systems? I have a simple philosophy of life, that in addition to our occupational duties, we must all work collectively to solve these problems within the wide panoply offered by voluntary organisations.
It is not always easy, for good intent cuts across vested interests and attracts ostracism and even legal retribution. However, we cannot pass by on the other side, we have to stop and help and yes, there is fulfilment in the friendships and the role of helping, for society will survive by collectivism rather than remain besotted by the uninhibited freedoms of liberal democracy. For some these have become freedoms to wreck the earth.
My commitment has survived because of the joys of family life, walking in the forests and climbing mountains, gardening the soil and reading, writing and painting the beauty before our eyes. Read more.
Easter Morning
Alaskan Wilderness
Professional Qualifications and Appointments
Medicine (MB. Ch.B) and Science (Ph.D) at Edinburgh University
Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians (FRACP and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (FRCPE)
Edinburgh University Medical School Senior Lecturer in Therapeutics; specialist in gastroenterology and general medicine and physician in charge, Gastroenterology Service, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh
Yale University Medical School Associate Professor of Medicine
Adelaide University Medical School; Mortlock Professor of Medicine, 1975-1997; Head (elected), Departments of Medicine, Royal Adelaide and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals, Adelaide, 1983-1996; Head, Professorial Medical Unit, Royal Adelaide Hospital, 1975-1997.
Honours and Awards
2013 from The Public health Association; the Tony McMichael Public Health, Ecology and Environment Award.
2015 Award of Member of the Order of Australia “for significant service to medicine in the fields of gastroenterology and environmental health, particularly the impact of global climate change on health.
2017 The Conservation Council of South Australia Inaugural Lifetime Achiever Award for an outstanding contribution to protecting South Australia's natural environment across the course of their lifetime.
2023 The Public Health Association of Australia; Award for his Lifelong Work dedicated to Health and the Environment.
Main contributions to teaching and Research
Contributor to seven editions of Davidson's Textbook of Medicine 1972-1996. This was the world's leading textbook on Medicine for undergraduate students in terms of sales and standing.
Co-editor of the textbook, Diseases of the Gastrointestinal Tract and Liver, Three editions, 1982,1989 and 1997. Churchill Livingstone. This text has set standards for gastroenterology worldwide and was extensively used in Europe, Asia and Japan (with Japanese translation)
Founding Editor and Editor 1985-1991 Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford and Melbourne. This journal has had an important role in fostering and coordinating medical research and development in the Asian-Pacific region
Consistent grant support for research from national grant giving bodies, the NH&MRC and the ARC, 1980-1996
Contributor to two working groups of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on Human health and on Australasian biodiversity issues
Several hundred medical and scientific articles and abstracts in the literature, many listed on ResearchGate
PAINTINGS
Environmental and community health interests
President, Conservation Council of South Australia, the umbrella organisation for all environmental groups in the State, 1991-1994
Founding Editor, Environment South Australia, the Journal/Magazine of the Conservation Council of South Australia, 1991-1994
Spokesperson for the Conservation Council on;- health and the environment, water purity and pollution, global environmental issues and population, 1991-1994
Articles on a range of environmental issues in professional journals.
Member, NH&MRC panel on Ecology and Health.
Honorary Research Fellow University of Adelaide law school
Invited speaker at environmental and law conferences.
Co-Founder of Doctors for The Environment Australia Inc., a branch of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment 2001
Patron, Economic Reform Australia.
