General Practice and Primary Care produces 22 professors over 27 years!

Published: 14 March 2018

Since 1994, the equivalent of two football teams of professors have emerged from the former UofG Department of General Practice (now IHW's General Practice and Primary Care)!

In 1994 the UofG Department of General Practice (now General Practice and Primary Care) had a total staff complement of 13 to support an integrated programme of education and research involving general practices in the western half of Scotland.

Photo of the front of General Practice and Primary Care, University of Glasgow

With little prospect of university funding to attract new senior staff, the aspiration was to emulate Celtic Football Club’s famous winning of the European Cup with a team of local talent all born within 30 miles of Glasgow.

With Sara Macdonald’s promotion to a chair of primary care and health sciences in 2021, the department and its successors have now produced 22 professors i.e. two football teams of professors who worked in the department (7 still at the university, 15 based elsewhere; 10 clinical, 12 non-clinical), confirming the existence and combination of local talent and opportunity.

These are (in alphabetical order of last name):

  1. Niveen Aburmeileh Professor of Epidemiology, Birzeit University
  2. Rose Barbour Emeritus Professor of Health Care, Open University
  3. Phil Cotton Professor of Learning and Teaching, University of Glasgow; Vice-Chancellor, University of Rwanda
  4. Al Dowie Professor of Medical Ethics and Law, University of Glasgow
  5. Carol Emslie Professor of Substance Use and Misuse, Glasgow Caledonian University
  6. Gill Hubbard Professor of Health Services Research, University of Highlands and Islands
  7. Alex McConnachie Professor of Clinical Trial Biostatics, University of Glasgow
  8. Sara Macdonald Professor of Primary Care and Health Sciences, University of Glasgow
  9. Daniel Mackay Professor of Public Health informatics, University of Glasgow
  10. Una Macleod Professor Primary Care Medicine and Dean of the Medical School, University of Hull/York
  11. Jane Macnaughton Professor of Medical Humanities, University of Durham
  12. Stewart Mercer Professor of Primary Care and Multimorbidity, University of Edinburgh
  13. Jill Morrison Professor of General Practice, Clerk of Senate and Vice-Principal, University of Glasgow
  14. Kate O’Donnell Professor of Primary Care Research and Development, University of Glasgow
  15. Lindsey Pope Professor of Medical Education, University of Glasgow
  16. Sue Ross Professor of Mature Women’s Health Research, University of Calgary
  17. Lisa Schwartz Professor of Health Care Ethics, McMaster University
  18. Mairi Scott Professor of General Practice and Medical Education, University of Dundee
  19. Frank Sullivan Professor of Primary Care Medicine, Universities of Dundee, Toronto and St Andrews
  20. Matt Sutton Professor of Health Economics, University of Manchester
  21. Trevor Thompson Professor of Primary Care Education, University of Bristol
  22. Phil Wilson Professor of Primary Care and Rural Health, University of Aberdeen

(NOTE Professors Graham Watt and Frances Mair had chairs on arrival)

Professor Graham Watt
Honorary Senior Research Fellow
General Practice and Primary Care
Institute of Health and Wellbeing


First published: 14 March 2018