The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society in the United Kingdom, headquartered in London.

History

The Society was established in 1805 as Medical and Chirurgical Society of London, meeting in two rooms in barristers’ chambers at Gray's Inn and then moving to Lincoln's Inn Fields where it stayed for 25 years. In 1834 the Society moved to Berners Street and was granted a Royal Charter by King William IV. In 1889 under the leadership of Sir John MacAlister, a Building Committee chaired by Timothy Holmes supervised the move of the quarters of the Society from Berners Street to 20 Hanover Square. In 1905 an eleven-member committee headed by Sir Richard Douglas Powell organised the celebration of the Society's centenary. Two years later the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London came together with seventeen specialist medical societies and, with a supplementary Royal Charter granted by Edward VII, became the Royal Society of Medicine. In 1910 the Society acquired the site on the corner of Wimpole Street and Henrietta Place, which was opened by King George V and Queen Mary in May 1912.

Governance

The Council is the governing body of the Society and is responsible for setting the overall strategic direction of the RSM. Council members are the Society's Trustees. The Council is chaired by the President, who has a three-year term of office. There are four Standing Committees (Education, Audit and Risk, Finance and Investment, Remuneration, People and Culture). The Chief Executive is responsible for the day-to-day management and leads the Senior Management Team, comprising the Directors and the Dean of Education. Each Director has their own specific responsibilities.

Presidents

Recent presidents of the society have been: Previous presidents of note of the former Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London were: * Frederick William Pavy (1900) * Sir James Paget (1875) * Joseph Hodgson (1851) * Thomas Addison (1849) * Richard Bright (1837) * William Saunders (1805 (1st))

Membership

The RSM has a global network of 20,000 members. Fellowship of the RSM is open to those who hold a UK recognised medical, dental or veterinary qualification, or a higher scientific qualification in a healthcare related field. Associate membership is open to those who do not qualify for Fellowship but who work within the healthcare sector or have an interest in healthcare issues. The Society also welcomes student members of medicine, dentistry and veterinary science as members plus other healthcare students. In addition there are up to one hundred Honorary Fellows, drawn from internationally distinguished members of the medical profession and branches of science and allied humanities, who are awarded this honour by Council. Famous Honorary Fellows (of the Royal Medical and Chirurgical Society of London) include: * Charles Darwin *

Louis Pasteur Louis Pasteur (, ; 27 December 1822 – 28 September 1895) was a French chemist and microbiologist renowned for his discoveries of the principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization, the latter of which was named afte ...

* Edward Jenner * Sigmund Freud

Sections

The RSM has 55 Sections and Societies that cover all the major specialties and topics of interest in medicine and healthcare. Together the Section Councils are responsible for planning the majority of the RSM’s education programme. Each Section is led by a Section President, and supported by its respective Section Council, which members may apply to join.

Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine

The Royal Society of Medicine’s two journals, the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM) and ''JRSM Open'', are outlets for scholarly comment and clinical research in the specialties of medicine and surgery. Published by SAGE Publishing, the journals are editorially independent from the Royal Society of Medicine, and their editor is Dr Kamran Abbasi.JRSM Open is an online-only journal that follows the open-access publishing model. A companion to JRSM, the journal publishes research papers, research letters, clinical reviews and case reports in all specialties and from all countries.

Awards

The annual Ellison-Cliffe Travelling Fellowship of £15,000 is open to Fellows of the Royal Society of Medicine working in the UK or Ireland who are of specialist registrar or lecturer grade or equivalent or who are consultants within 3 years of their first consultant appointment. The prize covers expenses for travel abroad in pursuit of further study, research or clinical training relevant to the applicant's current interests. The History of Medicine Society's prestigious Norah Schuster prize is awarded annually to an essay in the history of medicine. The Society's Gold Medal is awarded for outstanding contribution to medicine. Past recipients have included Wilfred Trotter (1938), Sir

Alexander Fleming Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of w ...

(1947),

Lord Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (24 September 189821 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacology, pharmacologist and pathology, pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Chain, Sir Ernst Chain and ...

(1947),

Sir Martin John Evans Sir Martin John Evans (born 1 January 1941) is an English biologist who, with Matthew Kaufman, was the first to culture mice embryonic stem cells and cultivate them in a laboratory in 1981. He is also known, along with Mario Capecchi and Oli ...

(2009),

Lord Walton of Detchant John Nicholas Walton, Baron Walton of Detchant (16 September 1922 – 21 April 2016) was a British neuroscientist, academic, and life peer who sat in the House of Lords as a crossbencher. Life Lord Walton qualified from Durham University Colle ...

(2014), Sir Michael Marmot (2017) and more recently Dame Sarah Gilbert (2021). The Edward Jenner Medal was originally established in 1896 by the Epidemiological Society of London (1850–1907) to commemorate the centenary of Edward Jenner's discovery of a means of smallpox vaccination. It is awarded periodically by the RSM to individuals who have undertaken distinguished work in epidemiological research. The Society hosts the annual Ellison-Cliffe Lecture concerning the advancement of medicine, along with the associated award of a medal. Past presenters/recipients include Sir Walter Bodmer, Lord George Porter, Sir

Colin Blakemore Sir Colin Blakemore, , Hon (1 June 1944 – 27 June 2022) was a British neurobiologist, specialising in vision and the development of the brain. He was Yeung Kin Man Professor of Neuroscience and senior fellow of the Hong Kong Institute for Adv ...

and Kevin Warwick.

Library

The RSM is home to one of the largest medical libraries in Europe. It is open to members of the public, who can visit its exhibitions and become temporary members to make use of its reference facilities. The Library represents one of the largest postgraduate biomedical collections in Europe and contains around 600,000 volumes. This includes William Harvey's ''Exercitatio anatomica de motu cordis et sanguinisin animalbus''. Due to its historical Library holdings, the Royal Society of Medicine is a member of The London Museums of Health & Medicine group.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Society Of Medicine 1805 establishments in the United Kingdom Buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Health in the City of Westminster Libraries in the City of Westminster Medical associations based in the United Kingdom Organisations based in the City of Westminster Organisations based in London with royal patronage Organizations established in 1805 Medical museums in London