Barts 900 – Dr Edward Rowland

The Changing Face of St Bartholomew’s Hospital

Dr Edward Rowland became a medical student at Barts in the 1960s and, following junior hospital posts and postgraduate training, he held successive appointments at the Royal Brompton and National Heart Hospitals, St George’s Hospital and University College Hospital, where he maintained his specialist interest in heart rhythm abnormalities. In 2012 he was appointed co-chair of the team which established the Barts Heart Centre and, since 2015, he has served as the medical director for St Bartholomew’s Hospital.

In conversation with Robert Treharne Jones, Edward used his long association with Barts to compare the past and present, including the hospital’s changed relationship with its medical and nursing students, the demolition and rebuilding of many much-loved buildings, and its complete redevelopment from a large specialist general hospital into one of the world’s leading heart and cancer centres.