Robert Smith, MD, one of the founders of the specialty of family medicine and an internationally respected medical educator who started the first general practice department in the world at Guy’s Hospital in London in 1963, passed away on February 5. Dr. Smith would have been 99 years old on April 2.
Dr. Smith received his medical education at Trinity College, University of Dublin. He was a house surgeon at Royal Surrey Hospital in Guildford, England, and served as a house physician with the Royal Army Medical Corps from 1947-49, serving in Germany. He then was a community general practitioner in England for 11 years before joining the Clinical Research Department at the Wellcome Foundation in London in 1960 where he also served as director of the Clinical Pain Research Program. Among the many honors he received during his prestigious career were the British Medical Association’s Hawthorne Prize in 1958; the International Prize from the Royal College of General Practitioners in 1959; and in 1975 he was the first U.S. family physician educator to be made a Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners in London.
In 1967, Dr. Smith immigrated to the United States where his work as a consultant with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led to him developing the family medicine department and serving as its chair from 1970-75. He then went to the University of Cincinnati (UC) in June 1975 where he served the first permanent chair of its new department of family medicine.
Upon his arrival in Cincinnati, OH, Dr. Smith began building the department of family medicine into a thriving clinical, education, and research program that quickly became a model for the nation. A year after coming to Cincinnati, he established its family medicine residency program, which quickly grew in size and stature and has now graduated 347 family physicians. In 1978, he was appointed as the first Fred Lazarus, Jr., Professor of Family Medicine. In 1985 he created a fellowship in geriatrics. During his years as departmental chair, he secured more than $15 million in federal, state, and private grants to expand the department.
Pain and migraine were the focus of Dr. Smith’s research efforts. He established the UC Headache Center in 1981 and served as its director until 1997. In 1965, he was a co-founder of the Migraine Trust, a British organization that champions migraine research and supports patients suffering from migraine. After stepping down as departmental chair in 1992, Dr. Smith became an emeritus professor, and turned his attention to engage in headache work full-time. He continued to be an active clinician, educator, and researcher and was still often seen at the UC College of Medicine until about a year ago when his health began to decline.
Dr. Smith and his wife, Myfanwy, provided generous philanthropic support to UC and its department of family medicine and are recognized as McMicken Society Tower Members. In 2005, the Robert and Myfanwy Smith Chair of Family Medicine was established to honor and recognize their contributions.
In 2007, he became the first family physician to receive the UC College of Medicine’s highest award, the Daniel Drake Medal. Five years later, he became the third person ever to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Headache Society. He also received the Health Care Heroes Lifetime Achievement Award from the Business Courier in 2016. Dr. Smith was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and served as vice president of the society. He also was a founding member of the Association of Chairmen of Departments of Family Medicine and served as an advisor in family medicine for the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Dr. Smith had been a member of the American Academy Family Physicians since 1970.
Dr. Smith is survived by his wife, Myfanwy; daughters, Jennifer Smith Margolis, MD, (Charles Margolis, MD) and Rosemary Smith; seven grandsons; and three great-granddaughters. He was predeceased by daughters Alison Smith and Caroline Smith Drinnan, MD. Services were held on February 10 at the Weil Funeral Home in Cincinnati, OH.
For more about Dr. Smith, read the article published in the Cincinnati Business Courier and his obituary.