Michael Rawlins

Sir Michael David Rawlins (28 March 1941 – 1 January 2023) was a British clinical pharmacologist and emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. During his medical career he chaired several executive agencies including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for 14 years from its formation in 1999 and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) for six years from 2014. From 2012 to 2014 he was president of the Royal Society of Medicine.

Rawlins delivered several eponymous lectures during his medical career including the 2008 Harveian Oration at the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), where he argued that there were other ways of collecting useful clinical evidence other than only randomised controlled trials and he encouraged a range of methods to provide a more holistic evaluation. For his contributions to protecting people from the side-effects of medicines he was knighted in 1999, and for his services to the safety of medicines, healthcare, and innovation he was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in 2017.

Early life and education

Michael Rawlins was born on 28 March 1941. His father was the Reverend Jack Rawlins, vicar of Northwood-on-Trent in Staffordshire, and his mother was Evelyn Daphne Douglas-Hamilton who following the death of his father later married a general practitioner. He attended Uppingham School, Rutland, with David Li and left there in 1959. In 1962 he graduated first class from University of London."Written statement of Sir Michael Rawlins"
Infecte blood enquiry, 24 March 2022 He obtained his medical degree from St Thomas' Hospital in 1965.

Career

Rawlins completed his house jobs in 1967; firstly in surgery at St Thomas' and then in medicine at Portsmouth. His subsequent senior house job was at the Brompton Hospital, London. The following year he gained membership of the Royal College of Physicians of London. After spending a year lecturing at St Thomas' he took up a senior register post at the Hammersmith followed by a year as visiting research fellow at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. In 1973, he was appointed the Ruth and Lionel Jacobson professor of clinical pharmacology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. There, he delivered his inaugural lecture in 1974, on "Variability in Response to Drugs", and remained at Newcastle until 1976.

From 1977 to 1983 he was a member of the National Committee on Pharmacology. In 1980 he became a member of the Committee on Safety of Medicines and was appointed its chairman in 1993; a position he retained until 1998. He was a member of the Committee on Toxicity from 1989 to 1992, and the Standing Group on Health Technology Assessment from 1993 to 1995. In 1998, he was appointed chairman of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and served it until 2008.

Rawlins was chair of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE) from its foundation in 1999 until April 2013. In 2010, he helped establish the all-party parliamentary group for Huntington's disease in the UK Parliament, supported by more than 40 MPs and peers. From 2012 to 2019 he was chair of UK Biobank. In November 2014 the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced the appointment of Rawlins as its new Chair, succeeding Gordon Duff. The appointment was renewed for a further three years in 2017.

Honours and awards

In 1977 he became a Fellow of the RCP London, and 10 years later was Fellow Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. He became a Fellow Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine in 1989 and of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998.

Rawlins was awarded the Hutchinson Medal in 2003, the Galen Medal in 2010, and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research in 2011. In 2012 he was awarded the Prince Mahidol Award for his contribution to medicine. He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from Zenith Global Health in 2019.

Rawlins was knighted in the 1999 New Year Honours for services to the improvement of patient protection from the side-effects of medicines, and was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to the safety of medicines, healthcare, and innovation.

Rawlins was an honorary professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, University of London, and emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne.

Eponymous lectures

Rawlins delivered several eponymous lectures at the RCP, including the Bradshaw Lecture in 1986. In 1994 he delivered the RCP's William Withering lecture. In it, contrary to the widely held belief that digitalis would unlikely pass modern day licensing regulations, he said of Withering's 1785 ''An account of the foxglove and some of its medical uses'' ... "Its contents would do justice to an expert report accompanying a Product Licence application to the drug regulatory authority of any state in the European Union".

In 2006 he gave the RCP'S Samuel Gee Lecture. In his 2008 Harveian Lecture, while acknowledging the value of good quality trials, he argued that there were also other ways of collecting useful clinical evidence other than only randomised controlled trials and he encouraged a range of methods to provide a more holistic evaluation. The problem with RCTs, he stated, is that they are too generalised. He pointed out that science includes the not so exact but important "judgement". According to philosopher John Worrall, if other physicians in the field of evidence based medicine held similar views to Rawlins, his orrall'sown philosophical work on evidence based medicine might not be required. Rawlins said in his lecture;

The notion that evidence can be reliably placed in hierarchies is illusory Decision makers need to assess and appraise all the available evidence irrespective of whether it has been derived from randomized controlled trials or observational studies; and the strengths and weaknesses of each need to be understood if reasonable and reliable conclusions are to be drawn.

Death

Rawlins died from sepsis and heart failure on 1 January 2023, at the age of 81.

Selected publications

Articles

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Books

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See also

*Relenza

References

External links

Interview on Cancer Research UK's science update blog
(Cancer research UK)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Rawlins, Michael
1941 births
2023 deaths
Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society
Fellows of the Academy of Medical Sciences (United Kingdom)
Presidents of the Royal Society of Medicine
British pharmacologists
Knights Bachelor
Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Fellows of King's College London
Clinical pharmacologists
People educated at Uppingham School