Donald Robert James Singer (20 August 1954 – 11 June 2022) was a British clinical pharmacologist who was the president of the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine.
Biography
He was born in Forres, Scotland and attended schools in Iraq, Bahrain, and Scotland. He died on 11 June 2022, at the age of 67.[1]
His interests included new approaches to personalising medicine, chemical and genomic research for the discovery of medicines and their harmful effects,[2][3] prevention and treatment of hypertension[4] and other disorders of the heart and circulation, and public understanding of health.[5] He is a co-author of the Pocket Prescriber,[6][7] a paper and electronic guide on safe and effective use of medicines for health students and prescribers, in publication with 8 editions since 2004.
Singer was active on many medical and professional committees, including for the British Hypertension Society,[8] the London Hypertension Society (president 1990–2002),[9][10][11][12][13][14][15] the British Pharmacological Society, the West Midlands Physicians Association,[16] the European Union of Medical Specialists,[17] the European Association of Internal Medicine,[18] and the European Federation of Internal Medicine.[18] He was a co-founder and associate editor of the European Journal of Internal Medicine.[19][failed verification] He was a former advisory panel member for the National Health Service Health Technology Assessment Programme, for the Pharmaceuticals Panel,[20] and for the Primary Care, Community and Preventive Interventions Panel,[21] an executive committee member of the British Microcirculation Society,[22] secretary of the European Association for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and former member of council and co-chair (2011–2013) of the Committee of Heads of Pharmacology and Therapeutics of the British Pharmacological Society.[23] He was a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society and an honorary Fellow of the Finnish Society for Internal Medicine and the European Federation of Internal Medicine. He was chair of the advisory board of Health Policy and Technology[24] and a consulting editor for Clinical Therapeutics[25] He was a member of the Healthcare Professionals' Working Party of the European Medicines Agency.[26] He has worked as a clinical pharmacologist on the Human Resources for Health Programme for Rwanda[27] advising on systems for pharmacovigilance and organizing an International Symposium on Medicines and Patient Safety held in Kigali in November 2014 in partnership with Pharmacology for Africa[28] and IUPHAR.[29]
Poetry and medicine
He was co-founder in 2009 with Michael Hulse of the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine for UK NHS-related poets and the International Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine.[30][31][32] Singer, Michael Hulse and Sorcha Gunne won the 2011 Times Higher Education Award for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts for the Hippocrates poetry and medicine initiative.[33][34] This award aims to recognise the collaborative and interdisciplinary work within universities and their external partners to promote the arts.
In 2012, he co-founded with Michael Hulse the international Hippocrates Prize for Young Poets for poetry on a medical theme.[35]
In 2013, he was co-founder with Michael Hulse of the international Hippocrates Society for Poetry and Medicine.[36]
Since 2017, Open, Health Professional and Young Poet categories are all international in the Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine. The 2017 Hippocrates Prize for Poetry and Medicine was held in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Initiative of Harvard Medical School.[37][38]
He was formerly a trustee of the Richmond Orchestra (London)[39][failed verification] and Ealing Junior Music School (London).[40][failed verification] In 2010 he co-founded the "Healthy Heart Awards" for schools and colleges.[41] The inaugural 2011 Healthy Heart Awards were organised by the Cardiovascular Research Trust[42][failed verification] and supported by "Heads, Teachers and Industry". Selected healthy heart poetry entered from 19 schools for the 2013 and the 2014 Healthy Heart Awards was published in the Love your Heart anthology.[43][44]
^Paul C. Taylor, Andrew J. Clark, Andrew Marsh, Donald R. J. Singer and Suzanne J. Dilly. A Chemical Genomics Approach to Identification of Interactions between Bioactive Molecules and Alternative Reading Frame Proteins" Chemical Communications 2013;49: 9588-9590(DOI: 10.1039/C3CC44647F). http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2013/CC/C3CC44647F#!divAbstract
^Cheema E, Sutcliffe P, Singer DR. The impact of interventions by pharmacists
in community pharmacies on control of hypertension: a systematic review and
meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Br J Clin Pharmacol. 2014 Jun 26.
doi: 10.1111/bcp.12452.
^Singer DR, Hughes AD (1996). "Introduction to New themes in hypertension. Proceedings of the 7th Annual Symposium of the London Hypertension Society". Journal of Human Hypertension. 10: 375–6.
^Singer, DRJ, Cappuccio, FP, Hughes, AD. "New themes in hypertension. 9th Annual Symposium of the London Hypertension Society. Journal of Human Hypertension 1999
^Singer DRJ, Cappuccio FP, Hughes AD, Carter ND (2000). "New themes in hypertension. 10th Annual Symposium of the London Hypertension Society". Journal of Human Hypertension. 14: 359.
^Singer DRJ; Cappuccio FP; Carter ND; Hughes AD. New horizons in cardiovascular disease. 12th Annual Symposium of the London Hypertension Society. NMCD. 2001;11;285-286.
^Hulse M, Singer D, eds. The Hippocrates Prize 2010. The winning and commended poems. The Hippocrates Prize in association with Top Edge Press, 2010. ISBN978-0-9545495-5-8.
^Hulse M, Gunne S, Singer D, eds. The Hippocrates Prize 2011. The winning and commended poems. The Hippocrates Prize, 2011.
^website for the Cardiovascular Research Trust "CVRT - Home". Archived from the original on 2 April 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
^Love your Heart. An anthology of poems by children for children about heart health. Edited by Wendy French and Rebecca Goss with notes on heart health by Donald Singer. 64 pages. Published by The Hippocrates Press, London: 4 December 2014: ISBN978-0-9572571-4-6.
