A reformer of medical education

George Smart was a physician who specialised in metabolic medicine, nutrition, and endocrinology, but it is for his contribution to medical education that he will best be remembered. The curriculum he introduced at Newcastle and later copied by other medical schools did away with much rote learning and was based on problem solving and the needs of patients. He also improved continuing medical education at the Royal College of Physicians and became an energetic and popular director of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation.

After qualifying at Newcastle Medical School, which was then part of Durham University, taking a BSc in physiology en route, he did his house jobs at the Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle. He then spent the second world war in the Royal Air Force, where he was part of a team dealing with nutritional standards for airmen. From 1946 to 1950 he lectured in medicine at Bristol University, taking a year out to study at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and to visit other medical centres.

He returned to Newcastle as reader in medicine, becoming head of the department of medicine in 1956, and training many of the next generation's leading physicians. He became postgraduate subdean in 1962, the year in which he introduced a new medical curriculum.

In 1971 he accepted an invitation to become head of the British Postgraduate Medical Federation, which supervised the postgraduate institutes of London University and appointed the postgraduate deans. He was censor in 1965-7, and senior censor and then senior vice president in 1972-3 at the Royal College of Physicians. He took a great interest in overseas students, showing them fatherly friendship and paving the way for generations of students to come to Newcastle. He chaired the General Medical Council's review board for overseas qualified practitioners during 1979-82, and was made an honorary fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Pakistan. He contributed to several textbooks, but disliked writing and said every word was a drop of blood.

He was an imposing man who put his work first. He had a lifelong interest in science and his knowledge of maths, statistics, and electronics enabled him to build his own laboratory equipment. He loved sailing and served on the Royal National Lifeboat Institution's medical and survival committee. A “devout atheist,” he enjoyed locking horns with the vicar in the village discussion group.

He leaves a wife, Monica; three children; and six grandchildren.

Professor Abdel Rahman Musa writes: I arrived in Newcastle in the winter of 1965 to join the department of medicine as the first Sudanese postgraduate student under the guidance of Professor Smart. The warm welcome of Professor and Mrs Smart alleviated much of the worry of a young couple leaving home for the first time. For the years to come George and Monica Smart remained “parents” to us.

Professor Smart paved the way for generations of postgraduate students to make the best of Newcastle. The link was kept alive by his successors, many of whom have developed special ties with Khartoum.

George Algernon Smart, former director British Postgraduate Medical Federation (b Alnwick, Northumberland, 1913; q Durham 1937; MD, FRCP), died on 2 November 2003 following a broken hip.