TY - JOUR T1 - The heart of the matter: the case for taking childhood obesity seriously JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 710 LP - 717 VL - 56 IS - 530 AU - Scott Brown Y1 - 2006/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/56/530/710.abstract N2 - I have discovered that I have several things in common with James Mackenzie. Despite my accent, we were both born Scots, completed our MDs from full-time general practice and enjoy golf. There the similarity ends, for James Mackenzie had an outstanding career in both primary and secondary care. He was a man of huge energy and even greater intellect and ability, being driven by an intense desire to advance his understanding of disease.However I do share his interest in cardiology, which began when I was a junior doctor at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast. It was there that I was influenced by the late Professor Frank Pantridge who pioneered the mobile coronary care unit. His ideas were rapidly embraced by others within the UK and the US. Pantridge's unit frequently received visiting delegations from other hospitals, keen to emulate the system of immediate care which produced such startling survival figures.Since Mackenzie's day, cardiological knowledge has increased dramatically, possibly only being surpassed by the rate of patient access to that information. Technological advances in diagnosis have also been immense. Furthermore, possible treatment options have expanded dramatically, none more so than the discovery of pluripotent stem cells with the ability to repair adult heart and blood vessels.Stem cell transplantation may offer immense therapeutic possibilities with a simple and cheap way of repairing end organ, and otherwise terminal, heart damage.1 As GPs we will need to continue to contribute to the ethical debate that surrounds this technique, and to the more pragmatic business of advising patients on the benefits and risks of such procedures.Having started life as a GP in Burnley in 1879, James Mackenzie then moved to London where he made a significant contribution to medicine and cardiology in particular. He eventually eschewed hospital-based care and … ER -