Thomas McKeown

Who is Thomas McKeown?

Thomas McKeown was a British physician and medical historian. McKeown argued from 1955 that the population growth of the UK post-1700 was due to economic conditions rather than improved medicine and public health. This became known as the "McKeown thesis".

McKeown attended university at McGill, before returning across the Atlantic to study at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. From 1945, he was professor of social medicine at the University of Birmingham. He is also known for his work in geriatrics and maternal-fetal medicine.