A Conversation with Prof Frank Sullivan
Authors: Chew Cindy , Sullivan Frank 
Published: September 2024

Tell us a little about your time as a student at Glasgow University. I thoroughly enjoyed my time as a student, but probably worked a little too hard. Work is only work if you have to do it and I found learning about how the body functioned endlessly fascinating! As I was the oldest of 5 children, whose father had died when I was 15, failing wasn’t an option. I remember getting 37% in Anatomy in MB2 but managed to pull myself up and awarded the Hunter medal in Anatomy at the end of the year I particularly enjoyed working in a more advanced clinical setting as part of the medical team during my electives to Cleveland (one of 10 student “ex-terns” to help plug holiday gaps in Surgery) and Gambia (MRC-funded experience investigating mosquito-related parasitic infections). I developed a greater appreciation of the BBC World Service during these excursions since neither 1970s rust-belt America nor Western Africa had much interest in the UK and the internet was a decade away. Outside of Medicine, I played football (Royalist of course against the Western!) and went climbing. As the Urgent Action UK co-ordinator with Amnesty International, I petitioned senior lawyers and politicians to stop Franco from garotting his political prisoners.

Tell us a little of your career and why you chose the specialty you did. I had passed the MRCP and was contemplating Oncology as a career when I realized increased exposure to General Practice would be essential to becoming a better Oncologist. It was only supposed to be a year, but I really enjoyed General Practice! I thought I was good at it and it could combine with Academia to allow me to contribute to patient health care at both the population and personal level. Can you share some of the highlights of your career (so far)? My career trajectory as an academic GP has been varied, taking me all over the world. I started as a GP in Blantyre (for 15 years), where best practices and processes were put into place (eg.. ISO9000) to deliver the highest standard of care to our patients. I may be immodest on behalf of our practice team, but I think our clinical care was equal to anywhere in the world, including Harley Street. I carried those lessons with me into the practices I worked in for the rest of my career as academic opportunities took me away from Lanarkshire to other practices.

Next, I was Professor of Research and Development in GP in Dundee and Primary Care (NHS Tayside), then led as Director of Scottish School of Primary Care. I moved to Toronto as the inaugural Gordin F. Cheesbrough Research Chair and Director of Practice-Based Research Network and then back to Scotland as Professor of Primary Care Medicine and Director of Research at, the School of Medicine (St Andrews). Of course, not to forget my spell as The Physician for the entire population of Seychelles. I am very proud to receive the Inaugural BMJ Research Paper of the Year Award (2009, Early treatment with prednisolone or acyclovir in Bell’s Palsy NEJM 2008; 359:1317-29).

What plans have you for the future? I am working to get St Andrews’ medical school 5-year SCOTCOM MBChB program up and running in the community over the next 3-4 years. I plan to continue to support young academics in their research and work. I am currently working on a £10M Doctoral Training Programme with the EU’s Marie Curie scheme. What would you say to your medical student self? Enjoy medical school and don’t work too hard. During the course, you will begin to understand how things go wrong in the body, how to detect that and using the mental image you have to try and help people. What would you say to the medical students today? While you are understandably preoccupied with passing medical school exams, do look at senior colleagues and think about where you could make your biggest contribution. This may be in scientific endeavors or clinical service for your local community rather than the wider world. Everyone has different talents. Do not get stuck in something you may not be great at e.g. someone may not be great at robotic surgery but could be excellent at listening. There is a branch of medicine just for you to make that special contribution: you just need to recognize your own strengths. Not many people have the privilege to do that, but WE CAN as doctors. So use that privilege well.