Professor Charles Warlow
Professor Warlow qualified as a doctor in 1968, following three years at Cambridge and another three at St George’s Hospital Medical School in London. Following junior hospital doctor jobs, he became a lecturer in medicine at the University of Aberdeen in 1971, where he did research on deep venous thrombosis of the legs. Professor Warlow then moved back to London in 1974, followed by Oxford, to train as a neurologist. In 1977 he became Clinical Reader in Neurology at the University of Oxford, and honorary consultant neurologist, and in 1987 moved back to Scotland to become the first Professor of Medical Neurology at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Warlow has always been interested in teaching and training, and spent three months at McMaster University in Canada in the early 80s seeing at first hand how they made doctors. As President of the Association of British Neurologists (2001-3), he was active in improving neurology services.
Professor Warlow is a clinical researcher interested in stroke and so-called ‘functional’ symptoms, with a passing interest in motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis. His main research skills are in clinical trials, meta-analysis and epidemiology and so not surprisingly became involved in what has become known as ‘evidence-based medicine’. Professor Warlow was the Principal Investigator for the European Carotid Surgery Trial and has been involved in various ways in many major trials in stroke and neurology generally. He also started the Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project. In recent times he has become more interested in ethical issues in medicine, and hypnotherapy.
In 2001 Professor Warlow launched a review journal in neurology with Blackwell Publishing – Practical Neurology – which he also edits. He is co-writing the third edition of Stroke: a practical guide to management, and is editing a book on treatment in neurology with the Lancet.
