Other livesHealthObituaryWalter Holland obituary
My friend Walter Holland, who has died aged 88, was an academic and doctor whose hallmarks were a passionate commitment to science and the will and political skills to make things happen through evidence-based advocacy and a sound critique of health policy.
He became professor of clinical epidemiology and social medicine at St Thomas’ hospital medical school, London, in 1968, at a time when the hospital was about to be rebuilt. He was determined that the new facilities should reflect the needs of the local population and established the first Health Services Research Unit, staffed with epidemiologists, social scientists, economists and statisticians. He set up a committee for community medicine (which he chaired) to prepare the hospital for the 1974 NHS reforms and make sure these improved the health of communities, and not just hospital structures.
Walter was born in Teplice-Šanov (Teplice) in the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia (the Czech Republic), son of Henry Holland, a businessman, and his wife, Hertha (nee Zentner). With the rise of Adolf Hitler, the family fled to the UK in 1939. Walter attended Rugby school, Warwickshire, then St Thomas’, qualifying in 1954. He did national service from 1956 to 1958.
Walter was appointed a lecturer in the department of medicine at St Thomas’ early in his career, then became a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, followed by a year at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. He returned to the UK in 1964 and subsequently to St Thomas’, where he continued to work until his retirement in 1994.
Walter’s groundbreaking randomised controlled trial, over nine years from 1967, demonstrated major problems with the practice of multiphasic screening – screening for several conditions through several different tests. More than 7,000 participants were either screened with a battery of tests or were not screened at all. The study found no difference between the two groups in terms of hospital admissions, sickness or mortality. The findings, published in 1977, were a great surprise as it had been supposed that such screening must be a good idea.
After retiring from St Thomas’ he carried on his public health work at the London School of Economics, where he was active writing, advising and teaching. Walter served on many national and international committees. He was president of the International Epidemiological Association and of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine. He was also founder editor of the Oxford Textbook of Public Health. He was appointed CBE in 1992.
He and his wife, Fiona, lived for many years in Kew and Twickenham. He was an avid reader and had a huge collection of books. He was interested in history, art and travel and enjoyed walking in the countryside.
He is survived by Fiona (nee Love), whom he married in 1964, three sons, Peter, Richard and Michael, and seven grandchildren.
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