Medical illustrator and educator

Born: January 19, 1942

Died: March 5, 2015

Keith Paris Duguid, who has died aged 73, was a former director of medical illustration at the University of Aberdeen. The son of John Paris Duguid, a shipbuilder on the River Clyde, he was born of Anglo-Scottish parentage in Walsall in the West Midlands and initially studied professional photography at Wednesbury Technical College in Staffordshire and later in the early 1960s at Manchester College of Science and Technology.

In 1958 he joined the department of medical illustration at Manchester Royal Infirmary as an in-service trainee medical photographer serving under its then eminent director Dr Robert Ollerenshaw. Medical illustration is a combination of medical art, graphic design and medical photography and is used as a scientific and diagnostic tool in clinical recording and demonstration, publishing, medical education, teaching and research.

Mr Duguid subsequently qualified as an NHS medical photographer, obtaining the medical associateship of the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain in 1964 before taking the final examination (graduate) certificate in medical photography of the British Institute of Professional Photography in 1966.

In later life he was elected a fellow of both organisations as well as an honorary fellow of the Institute of Medical Illustrators of which he was a founder member in 1969 and the recipient of its highest honour, the Norman K Harrison Gold Medal in 1984.

After Manchester, he then made a sideways move in 1966 to London joining the department of medical photography and illustration at Westminster Hospital Medical School, another recognised centre of excellence in the field. He was promoted to senior medical photographer, then deputy to the director, Dr Peter Hansell, and latterly in 1981, head of department following the latter's retiral.

It was during this period that he was recognised as an expert in both medical cinematography and emerging video production in medical education and training, winning numerous awards, including the British Medical Association Bronze and Research Film Awards.

With the advent of new technology and the merger of Westminster and Charing Cross Medical Schools in London in 1984, his extra professional duties included preparing short case psychiatric interviews for London University MB final examinations and the planning, operation and management of the first Fibre Optic Interactive Television Network for Distance Learning. This was pioneering work using then the latest technology and was the first of its kind in teaching medicine in Europe.

From 1975 to 2001 he served as an adviser and producer of educational materials for the MRCP (UK) Part 11 Examination Board of the Royal Colleges' of Physicians of London, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

He was also active in the educational affairs of the Institute of Medical Illustrators and the British Institute of British Photography where he was an Examiner for the Higher Examination in Medical Photography and both an examiner and board chairman for Fellowship and Associateship in Film and Television.

He edited four special medical issues of the British Journal of Photography and was editor of the Journal of Audiovisual Media in Medicine for over 10 years from 1981 to 1992. In addition he published 25 scientific papers, was joint author of six textbooks and gave numerous presentations at meetings throughout Great Britain and the United States.

In 1985 he was appointed director of medical illustration at the University of Aberdeen were he ran a highly successful multi-disciplinary department until he retired in 2004.

With the advent of the computer and the digital age, new methods of teaching evolved, and Mr Duguid, along with colleagues at the faculty of medicine in Aberdeen, were at the forefront of developing computer assisted learning (CAL). They established a CAL Unit that employed the latest in educational technology linked with medical illustration resulting in departmental professional and teaching activities that were emulated in Cardiff and Cambridge and other leading centres.

Following on from the Medical Photographic Certificate Course at the Glasgow College of Building and Printing from 1968 to 1991, a BSc course in medical illustration was established at Glasgow Caledonian University in the 1990s and Mr Duguid served as both a member of the degree evaluation panel and internal assessor.

He was an inspiration to junior and senior professional colleagues and students alike and showed great kindness and consideration to his many friends. He was one of life's true gentlemen and will be sadly missed.

During his college days he met a fellow photographic student and the girl who later was to be his wife and a tower of professional and personal strength throughout his life. Away from work he greatly enjoyed painting, gardening and stain glass window design and construction with his results beautifully shown in his garden shed in Bearsden. He also delighted in the accomplishments of his children and in particular his two grandchildren.

He died peacefully at home in Bearsden, Glasgow following a long illness and is survived by his wife Ann, children Sally, Rebecca and Angus and grandchildren Jennie and Anna.

ROBERT LOUDON BROWN