Professor Andrew N Williams BA, BM BCh, MSc, PhD, MRCP, FRCPCH, FRHistS

Andrew N Williams

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Consultant Community Paediatrician
Curator of Archive Northampton General Hospital

Contact details

Email
anw@doctors.org.uk
Address
Virtual Academic Unit
Child Development Centre
Childrens' Directorate
Northampton General Hospital
Northampton
NN1 5BD

Professor Andrew N. Williams PhD FRHistS is a consultant community paediatrician, medical historian, archive curator, playwright and film maker. He was trained in paediatrics/ paediatric neurodisability in Birmingham under Dr Geoff Debelle, Dr William Whitehouse and the late Dr S.H. Green.

  • Since 1999, Andrew has had an honorary affiliation with the History of Medicine Unit, firstly with Professor Robert Arnott and later with Professor Jonathan Reinarz.
  • 2000 he won the ILEA Gowers’ Young Physicians Prize.
  • Since 2002 he has worked as a full time NHS consultant community paediatrician at Northampton General Hospital. He has published on paediatrics and child health between the 16th–21st centuries.
  • 2004 Andrew established the world’s first paediatric Virtual Academic Unit (VAU) taking Dr Thomas Willis’ (1621-75) idea of an ‘Invisible college’ and placing it within a 21st century context. 
  • 2009 PhD in the History of Medicine at the University of Birmingham
  • 2013 the only UK expert reviewer and contributor to the UNICEF sponsored ‘International Charter for Ethical Research Involving Children.' 
  • 2015 won the WellChild Doctor Award which was presented by HRH Prince Harry.
  • 2018 his short film ‘The Boudiccae’ was shown in the Houses of Parliament, London as part of a successful campaign working with Together for Short Lives. 
  • 2018 appointed a visiting Professor in Medical History, Humanities and Child Health by the University of Northampton.

Andrew is a member of the Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaboration.

Qualifications

  • FRCPCH 2019
  • PhD, in Medical History, University of Birmingham 2009 
  • FRHistS by election 2006
  • MSc in Community Child Health, University of Warwick 1999
  • MRCPCH (by election) 1997 
  • MRCP (Paediatrics) 1994 
  • BM BCh University of Oxford 1990, 
  • BA (Hons) Physiological Sciences, University of Oxford 1987

Biography

The First Day (2015)
The Boudiccae (2017)
Now Walks Like Others (2019)

Professor Andrew N. Williams PhD FRHistS is a consultant community paediatrician, medical historian, archive curator, playwright and film maker. He was trained in paediatrics/ paediatric neurodisability in Birmingham under Dr Geoff Debelle, Dr William Whitehouse and the late Dr S.H. Green.

Since 1999, he has an honorary affiliation with the History of Medicine Unit, firstly with Professor Robert Arnott and later with Professor Jonathan Reinarz.

Since 2002 he has worked as a full time NHS consultant community paediatrician at Northampton General Hospital where he specialises in paediatric neurodisability and community child health as well as undertaking some palliative care.

To date all of his research has been undertaken without any research time within his job plan, a large part being completed in the hospital car park until 9am every workday. He is a past President of the British Society for the History of Paediatrics and Child Health. His work on Thomas Willis and childhood epilepsy won the 2000 ILEA Gowers' Young Physicians Prize.

He has published on different historical aspects of paediatrics and child health between the 16th–21st centuries and has taken his PhD at the University of Birmingham on the history of paediatrics and child health 1550-1750. He has given numerous presentations / lectures to medical and historical conferences, societies and other bodies. 

In 2004 he established the world’s first paediatric Virtual Academic Unit (VAU) taking Dr Thomas Willis’ (1621-75) idea of an ‘Invisible college’ and placing it within a 21st century context. The innovative VAU leads in, as well as contributes to, clinical and humanities research in child health (particularly child neurology/ neurodisability) for both the UK and internationally.

In 2013 he was the only UK expert reviewer and contributor to the UNICEF sponsored ‘International Charter for Ethical Research Involving Children.’ 

In 2015, he won the WellChild Doctor Award which was presented by HRH Prince Harry. 

In 2018, his short film ‘The Boudiccae’ was shown in the Houses of Parliament, London as part of a successful campaign working with Together for Short Lives 

In 2018 he was appointed a visiting Professor in Medical History, Humanities and Child Health by the University of Northampton 

He is a member of the Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaboration and Welsh Rugby Union.

Teaching

As an NHS consultant and out of hours

Postgraduate supervision

Andrew is always willing to discuss using the Archive at Northampton General Hospital for undergraduate and postgraduate research in the history of medicine and medical humanities

https://www.northamptongeneral.nhs.uk/About/OurHistory/Archive-Team.aspx

Research

  • History of Paediatrics and Child Health 1510-2015
  • International collaboration leading to publications on EXOSC3 and OPA genes
  • A member of Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaborators

Research groups and centres:

  • Member of Global Research on Developmental Disabilities Collaborators
  • Set up the world’s first paediatric Virtual Academic Unit (VAU) from 2004 to the present
  • Lead in the recruitment for the ASD-UK study-with more than 600 signed initial consents  -  the largest recruiter of 80 UK recruiting centres
  • RCPCH Clinical Standards Group 2014 - present
  • Curator of the Archive at Northampton General Hospital since 2004
  • The only UK expert reviewer/contributor to the UNICEF sponsored ‘Ethical research involving children, international charter and guidelines’ The Charter was published in 2013 and is the worldwide ethical foundation for the undertaking of research in children and predates the Children’s and Young People’s Child Health Research Charter of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (2016)

Other activities

The Boudiccae (2017)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imLTwY5768Q

This short film comprises interlocking monologues of 4 Northamptonshire mothers of children with special needs plus Charlie an adolescent with Spinal Muscular Atrophy type 2 who is her own words wishes to become ‘a wheelchair actress’. Sponsored by my MP Ms Victoria Prentis ‘The Boudiccae was shown in the Houses of Parliament, London in October 2018 working with Together for Short Livesas part of a successful campaign. Written into the 2019 NHS Long Term Plan this campaign led to a increase NHS England funding for Childrens’ Hospices, for the first time to parity with adult services and moving the age of transfer of adolescents with complex needs  to adult services from 18 to 25 years.

Publications

Most significant publications:

Williams A.N. ‘Facilitating future benefit when a participant has a degenerative illness and cannot give consent. ‘In: Graham, A., Powell, M., Taylor, N., Anderson, D. & Fitzgerald, R. (2013). Ethical Research Involving Children. Florence: UNICEF Office of Research – Innocenti. p 118-119. http://childethics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/ERIC-compendium-approved-digital-web.pdf

Bolajoko Olusanya, Adrian C. Davis, Donald Wertlieb, Nicholas J Kassebaum... and A. N. Williams Developmental disabilities amongst children under 5 years in 195 countries and territories: findings from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors 2016 Study. Lancet Global Health.  Published online August 29, 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/

Williams AN, Mold B, Kilbey L, Naganna P. Forty years of referrals and outcomes to a UK Child Development Centre (CDC): Has demand plateaued? Child Care Health Dev. 2018;1–6. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12552

Williams A.N. A Virtual Academic Unit – the first 10 years. Arch Dis Child Educ Pract 2015 doi:10.1136/archdischild-2014-308044

Eggens V.R.C., Barth P.G., Niermeijer J. F., Berg J.N.,  Darin N., Dixit A., Flus J.,  Foulds N., Hortobágyi T., Jacques T., King M.D., Makrythanasis P., Máté A.,  O’Rourke D., Price S., Williams A.N., Wilson L.,Suri M., Sztriha L., Dijns-de Wissel M.B., van Meegen M.T., van Ruissen F., Aronica E., Troost D., Majoie C.B.L.M., Marquering H.A.,Poll-Thé B-T, Baas F. EXOSC3 mutations in pontocerebellar hypoplasia type 1: novel mutations and genotype-phenotype correlations Orphanet Journal of Rare Diseases 2014 9:23. doi:10.1186/1750-1172-9-23.

Williams A.N. Sharma R. Children in Hospitals before there were Children’s Hospitals:  Pediatrics Vol. 134 No. 3 September 1, 2014  pp. 425 -427 (doi: 10.1542/peds.2013-0746).

Please sir, I want some more ?  Smith L., Thornton S.J.,  Reinarz J., Williams A.N. BMJ 2008; 337:a2722.

Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in children: risk factors, presentation, diagnosis and outcome. Sebire G, Tabarki B, Saunders DE, Leroy I, Liesner R, Saint-Martin C, Husson B, Williams A.N, Wade A, Kirkham F.J Brain. 2005 Mar;128(Pt 3):477-89. Epub 2005 Feb. 

Liao, Chunyan; Ashley, Neil; Diot, Alan; Morten, Karl; Phadwal, Kanchan; Williams, Andrew; Fearnley, Ian; Rosser, Lyndon; Lowndes, Jo; Fratter, Carl; Ferguson, David J.p.; Vay, Laura; Quaghebeur, Gerardine; Moroni, Isabella; Bianchi, Stefania; Lamperti, Costanza; Downes, Susan M.; Sitarz, Kamil S.; Flannery, Padraig J.; Carver, Janet; Dombi, Eszter; East, Daniel; Laura, Matilde; Reilly, Mary M.; Mortiboys, Heather; Prevo, Remko; Campanella, Michelangelo; Daniels, Matthew J.; Zeviani, Massimo; Yu-wai-man, Patrick; Simon, Anna Katharina; Votruba, Marcela; Poulton, Joanna.  Dysregulated mitophagy and mitochondrial organisation in optic atrophy due to OPA1 mutations.  Neurology 2017: 88: 1-12

“The Art of Making the ineffective effective” Williams A.N, Birmingham LB  Lancet 359: June 1st 2002: 1937-1939.

Williams A N “To Observe well ….and thence to make himself Rules” John Locke’s Principles and Practice of Child Health Care.  Journal Of Medical Humanities 2007;33:22-34.

ThOMAs: The Other Means of ASsessment" Williams A.N., Debelle G, Barratt T, Davis P. Journal of Child Neurology. 2005 Feb;20(2):108-11.

“A History of Child Neurology and Neurodisability” Williams A.N., In History of Neurology(eds) Finger, Boller and Tyler.  Elsevier 2010.

Levene A, Reinarz J. Williams AN. Child Patients and voluntary hospitals in eighteenth-century England. Family and Community HistoryVol. 15/1, April 2012 pp. 15-33

Tatman A., Warren A., Williams A., Powell J.E., Whitehouse W. “Development of a modified paediatric coma scale in intensive care clinical practice”. Archives of Diseases in Childhood 1997:77:519-522. 

O’Dell F., Williams AN Dr. Isaac Henry Gosset: Northampton’s first Consultant Paediatrician and Inventor of The ‘Gosset’ Icterometer’  J Pedia Health Care Med J Pedia Health Care Med Vol. 1 No 1 December 2017

Williams A.N., Gray R.G., Poulton K., Ramani P. Whitehouse WP .  A case of Ohtahara Syndrome with Cytochrome Oxidase Deficiency” Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 1998:40: 568-570. 

Williams A.N. Eighteenth century in and out patient child health care in Northampton Infirmary: a provincial English hospital. Family and Community History Volume 10 (2) 2007,  153-166. 

Williams A.N. ‘Thinking outside the box in Clinical Practice’ Arch Dis Child Ed Practice 2017  Volume 102, Issue 6  http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2017-313559

Williams A.N. Taking for a Walk a Dog with a Tail at Both Ends. Postgraduate Journal of Medical Humanities 2017 4: 2-31

Williams AN “Thomas Willis’ Practice of Paediatric Neurology and Disability” Journal of the History of Neuroscience (2003) 12, 4, 350-367. 

Williams A.N., and Arnott R.G., “A shot at Cyropolis. Additional comments on the death of Alexander the Great.” Journal of the History of Neuroscience. J Hist Neurosci. 2004 Jun;13(2):130-7. 

Williams A.N. “Thomas Willis Childhood Stroke, neonatal convulsions and Infanticide” Seizure 2001: 10: 471-483.

‘Williams AN. Scudamore N., (2017) Fowl Language': A medical humanities conversation. In: Risk and Regulation at the Interface of Medicine and the Arts. Dangerous Currents, Bleakley A. (Ed): Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp.192-210.

Burrill R , Stone B , Williams A.N, Koodiyedath B Problem Solving In Clinical Practice Paper Brexit Benefits? An Unusual cause for Bruising in a Baby Archives of Pediatrics and Neonatology Volume 1, Issue 2, 2018, PP: 26-34.

Stroke in Childhood Clinical Guidelines for Diagnosis, management and rehabilitation. Prepared by the Paediatric Stroke Working Group November 2004 Clinical Effectiveness and Evaluation Unit, Royal College of Physicians London.