Trevor Stamp: metabolic physician whose research highlighted the link between vitamin D levels and sunlight in the UK
BMJ 2023; 380 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p223 (Published 02 February 2023) Cite this as: BMJ 2023;380:p223
- John Illman
- London, UK
- john{at}jicmedia.org
Credit: Nick Stamp
The appointment of metabolic physicians in orthopaedic specialist hospitals in the 1970s heralded a new era enabling better recognition of metabolic bone diseases and the development of medical treatments for rare genetic disorders. It brought a new focus to common diseases, perhaps most famously vitamin D deficiency, and later to osteoporosis, once regarded merely a feature of ageing, now centre stage.
Vitamin D
Lord Trevor Stamp was one of the pioneers in this quiet revolution. A likeable, kind, family man, he never sought the limelight and never exploited his title. In fact, he had a dislike of public speaking and performing in front of large audiences, even though he was a concert level pianist, described as a “master of Chopin.”
After working at University College Hospital, London, under Charles Dent, a father of metabolic medicine and bone disorders in the UK in the 1960s and 1970s, Stamp became founder and director for 25 years of the department of bone and mineral metabolism at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, Stanmore, Middlesex.
Graham Russell of Oxford University, whose fundamental discoveries on calcium and bone metabolism ushered in the bisphosphonate group of drugs, said, …
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