Abstract
Professor of surgery who developed evidence based surgery and medical ethics
Alan Johnson rose rapidly through the ranks of academic surgery to become reader in surgery at Charing Cross Hospital in 1971, a post he held until moving to the chair in surgery in Sheffield in 1979. He combined excellence in surgical skills, sharp scientific aptitude, a rigorous approach to developing evidence based surgery, and a strong interest in medical ethics. He translated these interests into a body of published work which made an important contribution to the disciplines of gastroduodenal motility, hepatobiliary and upper gastrointestinal surgery, randomised surgical trials, and medical ethics.
In total, he edited or authored 10 textbooks, over 35 book chapters, and almost 200 original publications. Two of his books were published after his retirement, including a text on surgical palliative care, and his last book, entitled Making Sense of Medical Ethics and written jointly with his son Paul, was completed a month before his death.
He published prospective randomised trials evaluating the role of lithotripsy in the treatment of gallstones and a trial comparing laparoscopic with mini-laparotomy cholecystectomy. The latter trial was hailed in 1996 as “setting a new standard for surgical research” by Richard Horton, editor of the Lancet, and was subsequently acclaimed in the journal's annual review as one of the five most important papers published in the whole of gastroenterology in that year. His other major areas of clinical and research interest focused on the surgical management of peptic ulcer disease, portal hypertension, and Barrett's oesophagus.
Alan was an inspirational teacher and championed the importance of the formal teaching of medical ethics in the undergraduate curriculum of several medical schools. His contribution to clinical and academic surgery was recognised in his election to the presidency of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britain and Ireland and a number of other professional organisations, including the British Obesity Surgery Society and the National Association of Theatre Nurses. Alan chaired the Standing Medical Advisory Committee to the Secretary of State for Health, and in the early 1990s he was chairman of the Specialty Advisory Committee in General Surgery. He also served on and chaired a number of Medical Research Council committees and had been on the editorial boards of the British Journal of Surgery, Gut, and Neurogastroenterology and Motility. He received honours from professional organisations worldwide, including an honorary fellowship of the American Surgical Association. In 2003 the University of Sheffield recognised his achievements by awarding him the honorary degree of doctor of science.
In addition to this impressive list of achievements, Alan is remembered by patients, colleagues, and friends for his personal attributes. He combined a keen and critical intellect with a compassionate and gentle approach which always placed the wellbeing and best interests of the patient at the heart of all decisions. He manifestly lived a moral life founded on a strong Christian commitment, and this combined with a quick and ready humour and a strength of conviction made him an effective manager and medical politician. His equilibrium was renowned, and his skill and integrity in negotiations could be relied on to produce a consensus. Indeed, he became a much respected role model not only for the surgeons he trained and mentored but for colleagues in all specialties who recognised his supreme professionalism.
Even during the busiest periods of his career Alan was always able to find time for students and colleagues, both senior and junior. His patience in imparting surgical skills to trainees, however inexperienced, was unparalleled: he was as happy taking a senior house officer through a first inguinal hernia repair as he was guiding a senior trainee through a complex biliary reconstruction. He learnt and evaluated new techniques throughout his surgical career and latterly had been a pioneer in the surgical treatment of obesity.
Alan was born in 1938, the younger son of Dr Douglas Johnson, who was a founder of the Christian Medical Fellowship, an organisation of which Alan was president at the time of his death. He was educated at Epsom College and read medicine at Trinity College, Cambridge, and University College, London, graduating in 1963. He was widely gifted and energetic. He played hockey and cricket for his school, university, and hospital and maintained a lifelong interest in sport. He was a devoted family man who was always careful to balance work and family commitments. He was a craftsman and artist who made woodcarvings and painted with watercolours and pastels. He enjoyed music, playing the piano and organ, and was a patron of the Sheffield Chorale in which his wife sings. He also enjoyed country walks and ornithology. He was an active member of Christ Church, Fulwood, and a Sheffield church burgess.
Alan died of a myocardial infarction in the churchyard of St John's Church, Wotton, near Dorking, where he would have preached on “The Place of Compassion in Modern Medicine” at the St Luke's Day service. He had just delivered the same sermon at the sister church in Holmbury St Mary. Wotton was the first church that his parents had taken him to as a young child, and the family had kept close links with the area, having a holiday cottage nearby. He is now buried in its churchyard.
He is survived by his wife, Esther; sons, Paul, a paediatric surgeon in Oxford, and Andrew; and daughter, Fyona.
Alan Godfrey Johnson, professor of surgery University of Sheffield, 1979-2003 (b 1938; q Cambridge/University College Hospital, London, 1963; FRCS), died from a heart attack on 15 October 2006.