Ian Cameron
Specialist who helped protect medical education in London
PROFESSOR IAN CAMERON, who has died aged 85, was a specialist in respiratory diseases who spent much of his career in the NHS working to protect medical education in London.
In 1980 Lord Flowers’s working party into academic medicine in London confronted the problem of the over-provision of teaching hospitals in the capital, its main recommendations including a series of mergers between pre-clinical medical schools, including Guy’s, St Thomas’ and King’s College London.
The subsequent merger, in 1982, of St Thomas’ and Guy’s saw off the threats of closure, and as Dean of St Thomas’, and later principal of the merged schools, from 1986 to 1992, Cameron did much to cement good relations between the two hospitals and their schools.
Around 1991, as the Tomlinson Review into medical education in London was underway, Cameron initiated talks with King’s about a further merger.
Successfully integrating Guy’s and St Thomas’ – two schools with distinct identities – was one challenge, but adding the medical school of King’s to the mix required both political astuteness and strategic intellect. The merger was successfully completed in 1998 and the school, now the GKT School of Medical Education, is ranked 8th in the world
The younger of two children, Ian Rennell Cameron was born in London on May 29 1936 to James Cameron, an insurance broker, and his wife Frances.
He was educated at Westminster School and Corpus Christi, Oxford, where he developed a love of fencing, competing for England and winning the Universities’ Epee championships.
After graduating with a First in Medicine, he did his clinical training at St Thomas’, where he remained after qualifying in 1961 to pursue a career in general and respiratory medicine.
His academic research focused on respiratory physiology, asthma, control of breathing, hypoxaemia, pulmonary circulation – and also medical education.
Among other things he put together best practice guidelines for managing patients with respiratory failure, particularly those who accumulate carbon dioxide due to inadequate ventilation of the lungs.
He was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 1998.
Cameron was an inspired teacher, not only in his areas of expertise but also across broader aspects of medicine. He illustrated his lectures on acid-base balance (crucial for the normal physiology of the body) with images including the bubbles of CO2 created by putting a slice of lemon on top of a glass of gin and tonic, conveying a difficult subject with erudition, simplicity – and wit.
Cameron was an outstanding mentor to a generation of physicians, and through conferences abroad, including in Communist-era Prague, established links with colleagues across Europe and further afield
In 1994 Cameron was appointed Provost and later Vice Chancellor of University of Wales College of Medicine, helping to build its teaching and research reputation. He retained his London links as a council member of King’s College London and was appointed CBE in 1999.
From 2001 to 2007 he was Chairman of Enfis, a designer and manufacturer of intelligent high-power LED lighting which was looking to apply its technologies to medical equipment.
Outside medicine, Cameron had a deep knowledge of opera, poetry, art history, art and ceramics. In retirement he set up a joint venture dealing in paintings in Woodstock, Oxfordshire.
Ian Cameron married first, in 1964, Jayne Bustard, with whom he had a son and daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1978 and in 1980 he married, secondly, Jenny Cowin, who predeceased him.
Ian Cameron, born May 20 1936, died March 10 2022