Dr Julian Tudor Hart, a general practitioner who has captured
the imagination of generations of GPs with his groundbreaking
research, will be awarded the inaugural RCGP Discovery Prize at a
special ceremony this week.
The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) will be
presenting the award to Dr Tudor Hart for his methodical and highly
influential approach to research in general practice. He is
best known for his formulation of the Inverse Care Law in which he
showed how patients with the greatest need tend to receive the
poorest health care.
Dr Tudor Hart’s practice in Glyncorrwg, Wales, was the first in
the UK to be recognised as a research practice, piloting many
Medical Research Council studies. He was also the first doctor to
routinely measure every patient’s blood pressure and as a result
was able to reduce premature mortality in high risk patients at his
practice by 30%.
Dr Roger Neighbour, President of the RCGP, said: “Julian Tudor
Hart showed how good systematic general practice could
significantly improve the health of a deprived Welsh mining
community. His simple but far-reaching observation on inverse care
continues to inform health policy throughout the world to this
day.”
Graham Watt, Professor of General Practice at the University of
Glasgow, nominated Dr Tudor Hart for the award. Professor
Watt said: “His ideas and example pervade modern general practice
and remain at the cutting edge of thinking and practice concerning
health improvement in primary care. His work on hypertension
showed how high quality records, teamwork and audit are the keys to
health improvement. His life-long commitment to the daily tasks of
general practice has always given his work and views a salience and
credibility with fellow general practitioners. Julian Tudor
Hart has been and will remain an inspiration to health
practitioners and the communities they serve.”
Now retired from practice, Dr Tudor Hart has over the years
communicated his results and ideas to the wider world via 160
publications in scientific journals, four books and over 25 first
author papers in the British Medical Journal and Lancet.
Ends
To attend the award ceremony, Press should contact the RCGP Press
Office on 020 7344 3137 or email press@rcgp.org.uk
Notes to editors
The award ceremony is due to take place from 6.30pm on
Wednesday 27 September 2006 at the RCGP, 14 Princes Gate, Hyde
Park, London SW7 1PU.
Photos of Dr Julian Tudor Hart receiving his medal and a
certificate will be available from the RCGP Press Office
A list of some of Dr Tudor-Hart’s most prominent research is
below.
Further information on the RCGP Discovery Prize can be viewed on
the College’s website www.rcgp.org.uk/prizesandawards
The Royal College of General Practitioners is the largest
membership organisation in the United Kingdom solely for GPs. It
aims to encourage and maintain the highest standards of general
medical practice and to act as the “voice” of GPs on issues
concerned with education; training; research; and clinical
standards. Founded in 1952, the RCGP has over 25,000 members who
are committed to improving patient care, developing their own
skills and promoting general practice as a discipline.
Promoting excellence in family medicine http://www.rcgp.org.uk/
A selection of Dr Tudor Hart’s most prominent research papers
1. Hart, JT. Semi-continuous screening of a whole community
for hypertension. Lancet 1970; ii:223-6.
2. Hart, JT. Milroy Lecture: the marriage of primary care and
epidemiology: continuous anticipatory care of whole populations in
a state medical service. Journal of the Royal College of Physicians
of London 1974;8:299-314.
3. Hart, JT. Management of high blood pressure in general
practice. Butterworth Gold Medal essay. Journal of the Royal
College of General Practitioners 1975;25:160- 92.
4. Hart JT. Rule of halves : implications of increasing
diagnosis and reducing dropout for future workload and prescribing
costs in primary care. British Journal of General Practice
1992;42:116-9
5. Hart, JT. Practice nurses: an underused resource. British
Medical Journal 1985; 290:1162-3.
6. Hart, JT. Measurement of omission. British Medical Journal
1982; 284: 1686-9.
7. Hart JT, Humphreys C. Be your own coroner: an audit of 500
consecutive deaths in a general practice. British Medical Journal
1987; 294:871-4.
8. Hart JT, Thomas C, Gibbons B, Edwards C, Hart M, Jones J,
Jones M, Walton P. Twenty-give years of audited screening in a
socially deprived community. British Medical Journal 1991;
302:1509-13.
9. Hart, JT. A new kind of doctor: the general practitioners
part in the health of the community. London: Merlin Press, hardback
1988, paperback 1990.
10. Watt GCM, Foy CJW, Hart JT. Comparison of blood pressure,
sodium intake, and other variables in offspring with and without a
family history of high blood pressure. Lancet 1983; i:1245-8.
11. Watt GCM, Foy CJW, Hart JT, Bingham G, Edwards C, Hart M,
Thomas E, Walton P. Dietary sodium and arterial blood pressure:
evidence against genetic susceptibility. British Medical Journal
1985; 291: 1525-8.
12. Hart JT, Edwards C, Haines AP, Hart M, Jones J, Jones M,
Watt GCM. High blood pressure screen-detected under 40: a general
practice population followed for 21 years. British Medical Journal
1993; 306:437-40. 13. Hart, JT. The Inverse Care Law. Lancet
1971; i:405-12.
14. Hart JT Going for Gold : a new approach to primary medical
care in the South Wales valleys. Swansea : Socialist Health
Association, 1997
15. Hart JT. Our feet set on a new path entirely : To the
transformation of primary care and partnership with patients
(Editorial). 1998 British Medical Journal;317:1-2
16. Hart JT. Thoughts from an old GP. Lancet
1998;352:51-2
17. Hart JT. Clinical and economic consequences of patients as
producers. Journal of Public Health Medicine 1995;17:383-6.
18. Hart JT, Dieppe P. Caring effects. Lancet
1996;347:1606-8
19. Hart, JT. A new path entirely. The National Health Service
as next society. In press (2006)