Parveen Kumar

Dame Parveen June Kumar

Kumar co-founded and co-edited Kumar and Clark's Clinical Medicine, which is now in its 10th edition, a standard medical textbook which is used around the world. She has also held several leadership roles in medical education. She set up the first MSc course in Gastroenterology in the UK, and continues to teach, lecture and examine medical students and doctors across the globe. Apart from medical education, she is also very interested in global health and set up the Global Health Initiative at the Royal Society of Medicine when she was President.

Kumar was appointed

Early life and education

Born in

After qualifying, Kumar worked at St. Bartholomew's, Homerton University Hospital and the Royal London Hospital as a gastroenterologist. Specialising in small bowel diseases, such as coeliac disease, she was an elected member of the British Society of Gastroenterology's Council,^[3] and started the first gastroenterology MSc course in the UK.^[4] Interested in education, Kumar became academic sub-dean at Barts, then accepting the job of Director of Post-Graduate Medical Education. She co-founded and co-edited the textbook Clinical Medicine with Clark. Clinical Medicine is now a standard work, and is used worldwide:^[3] the 9th edition was released in 2017.^[4]

In 1999, Kumar was appointed a non-executive director of the

Kumar is also a trustee of the British Youth Opera^[5] and healthcare funder Barts Charity,^[6] and the BMA Foundation for Medical Research.

Awards and honours

In 1999, she became the first recipient of the Asian Woman of the Year (Professional) award, and in 2000 was appointed

In 2017, she was awarded a Lifetime Achievement for contributions to Medicine by the British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO)[8] and in 2019 she won the BMJ Award for Outstanding Contribution to Health.^[9]

References