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Academic child health comes of age: lessons from the first 100 years of the first University Chair of Child Health in the UK
  1. S Faisal Ahmed,
  2. Lawrence T Weaver,
  3. Forrester Cockburn
  1. Child Health, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK
  1. Correspondence to Professor S Faisal Ahmed; faisal.ahmed{at}glasgow.ac.uk

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Introduction

Academic paediatrics started by integrating medical care, scientific research, student teaching and clinical training. This model first appeared in Paris in 1803 at L’Hôpital des Enfants Malades,1 where dedicated staff treated children’s diseases while conducting research and teaching. Later, similar setups in Berlin, Vienna and Budapest further facilitated collaborative research, enabling systematic studies and laboratory investigations. The objective of this paper is to describe the development of academic paediatrics in Glasgow through the perspective of the first University Chair of Child Health in the UK.

Birth and infancy phase—1924–1947

Glasgow established an academic department of child health with an endowed chair in 1924, modelled after Berlin’s paediatrics departments. The Samson Gemmell Chair of Medical Paediatrics was established by University of Glasgow, in memory of an Ayrshire doctor, Professor Samson Gemmell who had worked in the Children’s Hospital at Garnethill for many years in addition to his adult ward duties and who held the Regius Professorship of Clinical Medicine between 1908 and 1913.

Leonard Findlay, the first Samson Gemmell professor (figure 1), trained in Berlin, where he researched childhood rickets, tuberculosis, gastroenteritis and congenital syphilis.2 Influenced by emerging sciences such as microbiology, immunology and nutrition, Findlay initiated a collaborative research programme in Glasgow, working with the professors of physiology and pathology. This collaborative model combined clinical care, bedside teaching, and research, making paediatrics a compulsory part of the undergraduate medical curriculum. Findlay’s efforts established a robust foundation for paediatrics at Glasgow, blending clinical care with scientific inquiry. His work emphasised the importance of understanding childhood diseases through a multidisciplinary …

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  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer-reviewed.