A clinical academic life combines service to patients, research, education and service to the community. David headed patient services and clinical laboratories that combined research and clinical practice to explore mother – baby drug transfer, dosing for psychotropic drugs, poisoning treatments, blood biomarkers of alcohol and many other areas of drug therapy. Questions of basic mechanism, arising from clinical research, have been pursued in collaborations on transcriptional regulation in cancer, glucocorticoid anti-inflammatory drug action, macrophage cancer phenotype and bone morphogenesis, including widely cited publications on the role of NFkB in glucocorticoid response and cell cycle progression.
Effective doctoring blends human empathy with skills in diagnosis and therapeutics. Over 6,000 doctors have carried into practice the therapeutic grounding they have received as students under David’s direct supervision over 36 years. UWA medical students have performed particularly well in Australia-wide tests of prescribing skills.
Research and practice in clinical pharmacology build special skills that the community is entitled to share, as a benefit of UWA’s presence in it. David’s practice in forensic toxicology assists in diagnosis and the administration of justice in Australia and, through published papers and monograph, internationally. David continues clinical practice, supervision of higher degree research students and specialist training.
Most important experiences while at UWA
• Opportunity to influence the quality of medical practice for at least a generation into the future, through medical student and junior doctor education;
• Opportunity to benefit future patients through clinical research in mother – baby drug transfer, dose-exposure relationships for psychotropic drugs, poisoning, biomarkers for alcohol, drug concentrations in children and adult patients.
• Opportunity for basic research on glucocorticoid anti-inflammatory pharmacology, macrophage cancer phenotype, bone morphogenesis and NF-KB in cell cycle progression.
Where did you think you would end up, when you began your career?
The career, as it played out, followed my broad expectation of remaining in tertiary medical practice while researching both clinical and basic pharmacology. Research questions arising from clinical practice or from the basic pharmacology laboratory then led through different fields and goals, but not outside those broad themes.
What are some of your most significant achievements?
• In teaching, educating 6,000 doctors in safe, effective therapeutics over 36 years.
• In clinical practice, establishing and directing clinical services for patient care and for drug analysis;
• In basic research, discovering mechanism of action of glucocorticoid drugs in suppressing pro-inflammatory TNFa.
• In clinical research, unravelling determinants of drug concentrations after dosing.
• In forensic toxicology practice, through international publication of authoritative monograph on drugs in child maltreatment.
What has been the most interesting aspect of your career?
All facets (clinical, teaching and research) have been interesting, none more outstandingly so than the others.
Where are you planning to go from here? Are there new interests you are looking to get involved in?
Retaining appointment at PathWest Laboratory Medicine, with the research opportunities and trainee teaching opportunities that come with this. Continued practice in forensic toxicology. Doing all the recreational things that have been put aside during professional and academic life.