Professor Philip Poole-Wilson, President of the European Society of Cardiology (1994-1996)
Philip Poole-Wilson was the British Heart Foundation Simon Marks Professor of Cardiology, Head of Cardiac Medicine at the National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London, and Honorary Consultant Physician at the Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals.
Professor Poole-Wilson was an undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge University, reading Natural Sciences (chemistry, physics, mathematics and physiology) before moving to St Thomas' Hospital Medical School and subsequently into a range of clinical training posts in the UK.
In 1973 he was awarded a British-American Travelling Fellowship supported by the British Heart Foundation and undertook research in Los Angeles. He was appointed as Professor of Cardiology at the University of London in 1983 and has held numerous visiting Professor positions in the UK and USA. He was Clinical Director for Cardiology, Research Director, a non-executive Board member at the Royal Brompton Hospital and was Head of NHLI from 1997 to 2000.
Professor Poole-Wilson's other appointments included President of the European Society of Cardiology (1994-1996) and President of the World Heart Federation (2003-2005). He was the founding President of the British Society for Heart Failure (1998). He has served on many committees within the Department of Health, MRC, Research Assessment Exercise, British Heart Foundation and Wellcome Trust in the UK. He was on the Editorial Board of several leading journals and was Chairman/Member of the Steering or Monitoring Committees of many large international clinical trials. Amongst a large number of honours and named lectures during his career, Professor Poole-Wilson was awarded Le Prix Europe et Medecine de l'Institut des Sciences de la Santé, Paris in 2001 and the Mackenzie Medal of the British Cardiovascular Society in 2007.
During his career, he supervised more than 40 research students. He published over 500 papers, wrote many book chapters and edited leading textbooks (Diseases of the Heart 1996, Hurst's The Heart 2008) in his specialist interest area of heart failure, coronary heart disease and the global prevention of heart disease and stroke.
"Philip was certainly one of the greatest and wisest human beings who has passed through the history of the Society."
Alan J. Howard
"Philip Poole-Wilson put heart failure on the map in the UK and was a giant in the field in Europe and further afield. Philip directly and indirectly mentored a generation of doctors, scientists and nurses interested in heart failure. He filled us with his enthusiasm. We will miss him greatly."
John McMurray