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Sir Donald Irvine became Chairman of Picker Institute Europe in 2002. After qualifying from Newcastle Medical School in 1958, Sir Donald was a general practitioner in Northumberland for 35 years. For 20 of those years he was also Regional Adviser for General Practice at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne and between 1983 and 1985 was Chairman of the Council of the Royal College of General Practitioners. In 1995 he was elected President of the General Medical Council, the first general practitioner to hold that office. Throughout his career Donald has had extensive teaching and research interests, focused primarily on general practice and on standards of practice and the quality of healthcare. As chairman of the GMC Standards Committee he was responsible for the development of Good Medical Practice, which sets out the duties and responsibilities of every UK doctor and the standards which form the basic template for modern medical regulation and education. Maintaining quality of practice and reforming regulation were the central themes of Donald's presidency of the GMC. He has written and lectured extensively on general practice, medical education, patient centred professionalism and quality themes in health. He has been awarded honorary degrees from six UK universities and honorary fellowships from five medical royal colleges. In 2004 he was presented the Picker Award for an Outstanding Contribution to Patient Centred Healthcare. | 