A consultant paediatric chest physician at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals has been awarded an honorary doctorate by Vilnius University, recognising his significant contributions to improving paediatric healthcare in Lithuania.
Professor Andrew Bush, who was first invited to deliver a lecture at the University in 1996, described the honour as “the highest achievement in my career to date” and Lithuania as a country that holds a special place in his heart.
Since his first visit to Vilnius University, Professor Bush — elected as an international member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences in 2012 — has formed strong collaborations with the Faculty of Medicine, advising on the development of its first paediatric residency programme, the validation of paediatric sub-specialties and the preparation of quality standards for pulmonology.
Professor Bush provides free consultations to children with chronic and severe diseases in Vilnius and London. In 2019, he launched a remote e-consultation platform for sick children, connecting the Children’s Disease Clinic at Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos and Royal Brompton Hospital.
In addition, he is one of the initiators and co-authors of methodological guidelines for cystic fibrosis, asthma, pneumonia and other respiratory diseases in Lithuanian children.
In 1996, Professor Bush and academics at the University drove the establishment of the Vilnius International Conference at the School of Pediatric Pulmonology and Allergology, since attended by more than 9000 medics for its continuing professional development courses.
Early in his career, Professor Bush worked in adult chest diseases and at the Clinical Physiology Unit of the Royal Brompton Hospital with Professor David Denison. Returning in 1991, he has worked at Royal Brompton and Harefield Hospitals since.
Professor Bush’s research interests include the response of the human body to hypoxic and infectious stress, the adaptive mechanisms of a child’s body, and the study of early markers in bronchial asthma, as a model of chronic disease.
He has published and contributed to more than 650 peer-reviewed scientific articles and 120 books, and his scientific work has been cited an estimated 60,000 times.
Professor Bush was born into a musical family. His father was a famous British composer, a popular BBC radio presenter, and a researcher who taught at the universities of Oxford and London.
Receiving his honorary doctorate, he expressed his thanks to guests in Lithuanian and the ceremony closed with a musical piece composed by his father.
