Breaking new ground

Professor Mansel Aylward has had a remarkable career. A specialist in rheumatology and rehabilitation, therapeutics and clinical pharma-cology, Aylward began his career working as a surgeon, physician and general practitioner (GP). However, it was his desire to gain a greater understanding into the psychosocial factors affecting the way certain people respond to illness that led him to his current role as chief medical adviser, medical director and chief scientist at the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). "My initial plan was to go into surgery, but after two or three years I reali...