Sir Liam DONALDSON Chief Medical Officer Department of Health, UK

The Chief Medical Officer for England is often referred to as the Nation's Doctor. Sir Liam Donaldson has held this historic post since 1998, only the 15th person to do so since the first Chief Medical Officer was appointed as a response to the cholera epidemics that swept Victorian England.

In keeping with the traditions of the post, Sir Liam holds critical responsibilities across the whole field of health and health care. He is also the United Kingdom's chief adviser on health issues and advises the Secretary of State for Health, the Prime Minister and other government Ministers. He represents the United Kingdom in international fora including the World Health Organization.

Since coming into post, Sir Liam has created landmark reports aimed at radically transforming important areas of health care, for example (links to these documents can be found at the end of this document):

• the country's first comprehensive health protection strategy (Getting ahead of the curve);

• legislative change in relation to organ and tissue retention (The removal, retention and use of human organs and tissue from post-mortem examination);

• new legislation to permit regulated use of stem cells for research (Stem cell research: Medical progress with responsibility);

• poor clinical performance (Supporting doctors, protecting patients);

• patient safety (An organisation with a memory);

• empowering patient self-management of chronic disease (The expert patient: a new approach to chronic disease management for the 21st century); • reform of the current system of clinical negligence (Making amends);

• creation of a new system of training for doctors in the early years after qualifying (Unfinished Business - proposals for reform of the Senior House Officer grade);

• the strengthening of the public health function (Report of the CMO's project to strengthen the public health function);

• and action plans in key areas of infectious disease control such as tuberculosis, West Nile fever and health care associated infection.

Sir Liam's Annual Reports, On the State of Public Health, have strongly championed the need for action on key areas of the nation's health. For example, his calls for action on obesity and on the need for smoke-free public places and workplaces triggered an extensive public debate on the growing concern about these issues and the need for action to address them.

Sir Liam devised and promoted the idea of Clinical Governance, a model to assure clinically-led high standards of care. Clinical governance is now an internationally recognised concept in medical care.

Since taking up the post of Chief Medical Officer, he has also been involved in responding to high profile issues of public concern, including the retention and storage of children's organs at Alder Hey Children's Hospital, the clinical audit of the practice of Dr Harold Shipman, and the inquiry into the children's heart surgery service at Bristol Royal Infirmary.

Sir Liam Donaldson has worked across all sectors of health care: hospital medicine, general practice, public health, academic medicine and health service management.

Initially trained as a surgeon in Birmingham, he went on to hold teaching and research posts at the University of Leicester where he also spent time in general practice. In 1986, he was appointed Regional Medical Officer and Regional Director of Public Health for the Northern Regional Health Authority. There he spearheaded wide-ranging changes to address longstanding problems in an area acknowledged to have one of the poorest overall health records in Britain. In 1994 he became Regional Director (i.e. Chief Executive Officer) for the NHS Region of Northern and Yorkshire covering the health and health care needs of a population of 7 million.

Sir Liam has received many public honours: 12 honorary doctorates from British Universities; eight fellowships from medical royal colleges and faculties; the Gold Medal of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh; the Queen's Honorary Physician between 1996 and 1999. He was Knighted in the 2002 New Year's Honours List.

Sir Liam regularly gives key note addresses at conferences in the United Kingdom and around the world. He is also an experienced broadcaster. He is co-author of a standard text book of public health (Essential Public Health), a history of the Chief Medical Officers of England (The Nation's Doctor) and over 120 papers in peer review journals. He holds an honorary Chair in Applied Epidemiology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, England and a Visiting Chair in the University of Leicester.

He is recognised as an international leader in health and health care, particularly in the fields of public health and health care quality. His championing of the imperative to improve patient safety - engaging with victims and their families, politicians, policy-makers and professional leaders worldwide - led directly to the establishment of the World Health Organization World Alliance for Patient Safety, which he has Chaired since its launch in 2004. This important initiative has taken action on patient safety to the level of a global concern and has engaged over 140 countries and all six regions of the World Health Organization.