Professor Bruce Thompson has been one of the biggest names in respiratory medicine over the past few years, amid a pandemic, bushfires and a national crisis in dust diseases and air pollution.
The clinical scientist is now being recognised for his contribution to the specialty, having been made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) in the Australia Day Honours.
The accolade is for “significant service to respiratory medicine, and to tertiary medical education”, and such as been his impact that it can be easy to forget at times that Professor Thompson is not himself a doctor.
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Professor Bruce Thompson. Source University of Melbourne
In fact he became the first non-medical president of TSANZ when he took up the role in 2019.
“To take on that role through a once-in-a-century respiratory pandemic was certainly a challenge,” reflects Professor Thompson, habitually understated in an interview with the limbic.
“I wouldn’t recommend it for someone who wants an easy life.”
Beyond COVID-19, the respiratory agenda has been jam packed, with e-cigarettes, lung cancer screening, silicosis, bushfires and air pollution all making headlines during his tenure as president.
“It can feel like lung health is being attacked on all fronts at times,” he says.
“But the level of community awareness is also changing, as recognition of the issues by governments, so there have been positives as well.”