Announcing the death of Paul Wallace

Paul died peacefully at his home in Italy after a long illness due to prostate cancer. He was the David Cohen Professor of Primary Health Care at UCL (1993-2012) and Head of Department of Primary Care & Population Sciences (1994-2001).  He worked as a GP at Hampstead Group Practice for 20 years and was also previously National Primary Care Director for the NIHR Clinical Research Networks.

Paul was awarded an MRC epidemiology training fellowship shortly after completing his specialist training in general practice in 1982. He forged a highly successful, career in academic general practice, starting at the MRC Epidemiology and Medical Care Unit at Northwick Park, then at Imperial College, moving on to UCL in 1993 to take up the David Cohen Chair of Primary Care in 1993.

Paul's research was primarily focused on the identification and management of patients with risky drinking patterns. He was chief investigator on the early Medical Research Council pioneering studies on the detection and management of patients with excessive alcohol consumption in general practice. This work paved the way for a series of major international trials which established the key role of screening and brief intervention for alcohol problems. He subsequently played an active role on the Executive Committee of Alcohol Concern and on the Research Committee of the Alcohol Education and Research Council. He sat on several Working Parties of the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Psychiatrists and Royal College of General Practitioners, including the Working Party on Alcohol and Cardiovascular Disease, and on Alcohol and the Young.

Paul was an early champion of telemedicine and eHealth, and soon after he joined UCL in 1993 he established a research group to investigate the potential use of videoconferencing technologies to improve the quality of interaction between physicians seeing patients in primary and secondary health care settings. He was subsequently the chief investigator on a large scale multi-centre randomised controlled trial of Virtual Outreach in urban and rural settings. Working with Elizabeth Murray, Stuart Linke and other members of the new UCL eHealth Unit, he subsequently went on to explore the potential to apply internet-based digital technologies to deliver interventions to people with alcohol problems. This work led to the development of the Down Your Drink website (www.DownYourDrink.org.uk ) and subsequently to a large scale online randomised controlled trial of which he was the chief investigator.

Paul’s most recent work had concentrated on the potential for digitally mediated alcohol interventions to be used in primary care settings and right up to  his death he led an international programme of research into the effectiveness of GP facilitation of digitally mediated screening and brief interventions for alcohol problems.

Paul also chaired the Strategic Leadership Group of the Safe Sociable London Partnership initiative on the London-wide implementation of identification and brief advice for alcohol across settings in health, social care and criminal justice and was Chief Medical Advisor to the alcohol awareness charity, Drinkaware.

Paul was very much involved with the development of research networks in primary care, both in the UK and internationally. While still a research fellow, he chaired the North West London RCGP Faculty Research Committee, and later established the North Central Thames Primary Care Research Network (NoCTeN). He subsequently became the Research Director of the North Central London Research Consortium (NoCLoR) and was appointed Director of the NIHR Primary Care Research Network in 2006.

Throughout his career Paul was a dedicated teacher and a central figure in the expansion of community based medical education which took place in the 1990s and early 2000s. He regularly taught students in his own practice, particularly in the field of mental health in the community and alcohol.

After becoming an Emeritus Professor at UCL, Paul held a post as Clinical Director Digital at the Health Innovation Network, and was the founder and Executive lead for the Foundation for Family Medicine in Palestine (www.familymedicinepalestine.org ).

He was a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) and a Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians. In recognition of his major contribution, he was awarded the RCGP President's Medal in 2013. He was also a founder member of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA)  European Society of General Practice/Family Medicine, and a past President of the European General Practice Research Network.

Paul is survived by his wife Sabrina and children Juliette and Marcel. He will be sadly missed by all who knew him.

The Department of Primary Care & Population Health will be collecting messages of condolence for the family which can be sent via j.rosenthal@ucl.ac.uk