Dr Hamilton comes from a background of clinical and academic general practice. His medical career began in hospital medicine, including 2 � years as a physician in Malawi, followed by 11 years as a principal (and senior partner) in general practice. He is now a full-time primary care researcher, funded by the NHS. His main research interest is in diagnosis in primary care, particularly that of cancer, and he recently completed three diagnostic studies for the Department of Health on colorectal, prostate and lung cancers. The colorectal results in particular have borne fruit, in that further studies on a tool for earlier diagnosis of this cancer have been funded by the DoH. Dr Hamilton is… a founder member of the NRCI Primary Care Studies Development Group (the umbrella organisation for cancer studies in primary care) and the NICE Guideline Development Group for CFS/ME. He has written over 50 peer-reviewed publications, largely in the field of diagnosis, with cancer being the largest topic. Dr Hamilton also co-edited the 2nd edition of 'Orthopaedics in Primary Care', which involved the key skill of translating orthopaedic surgeons language into English! His writing is not just the dry format of research papers: he has written editorials for the BMJ and BJGP, lighter pieces for the back pages of the BJGP and a lengthy piece on constipation for BMJ learning! As well as his medical qualifications he has a certificate in literature (with merit!) from the University of Exeter.