New ideas for old concerns
Prof. Derek Prinsley (AM) qualified as a doctor in 1942. Months later he was drafted into the RAF as a Medical Officer serving in England and the Middle East, and served for four years. Returning to North Yorkshire in 1947, he continued his career in medicine. His experience and his courage to challenge, reinvent and pioneer would see him establish geriatric medicine as a distinct discipline, which understands the unique needs of older people. In doing so, he ‘incidentally’ set up a dedicated unit for younger, chronically disabled people, became a World Health Organisation Fellow, advised on geriatric dietetics, and set up the first day-hospital in the United States. During his career Derek worked in England, before and after the NHS formed, Australia and America, as well as many developing countries as a WHO fellow. Aged 97, he now lives in Melbourne where in 2014 he was honoured as a Member of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to medicine.