Denis Parsons Burkitt belongs to the medical record as a figure whose work changed what could be treated.
The record lists Denis Parsons Burkitt as British surgeon (1911-1993).
Denis Parsons Burkitt was born at Enniskillen in 1911. His recorded nationality is United Kingdom. He trained at Portora Royal School and Trinity College, Dublin.
Around the turn of the twentieth century, laboratory medicine, vaccines and public health began to change mortality at population scale.
The recorded fields of work are surgery.
Medicine advances against a moving target, and its successes are counted in lives rather than papers.
Recognition followed: Fellow of the Royal Society, Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (1972), Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (1972) and Charles S. Mott Prize (1982).
That the work was done from United Kingdom matters: hospitals, training and research funding are unevenly distributed, and they decide which questions can be asked.
Denis Parsons Burkitt died in 1993, aged 82. What survives is the change in practice, which is how a medical life is actually measured.
Achievements
- Fellow of the Royal Society
- Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award — 1972
- Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize — 1972
- Charles S. Mott Prize — 1982
- Buchanan Medal — 1992
- Fields: surgery
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