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Kamran Abbasi

From Alfawiki
Adapted from the English Wikipedia article Kamran Abbasi, available under CC BY-SA 4.0Updated 1 December 2025
Kamran Abbasi
Born
Lahore, Pakistan
Occupation(s)Physician, professor, editor, author, cricket journalist, broadcaster
Years active1997–present
Known forEditor-in-chief of the British Medical Journal; editor of the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine; cricket journalism

Kamran Abbasi is a physician, professor, editor, and author of Pakistani-English descent.

He currently holds the position of editor-in-chief at the British Medical Journal (BMJ), serves as a visiting professor within the Department of Primary Care and Public Health at Imperial College, London, and acts as editor for the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine (JRSM). Abbasi played a significant role in broadening the international reach of the BMJ. Additionally, he is recognized as a cricket journalist and broadcaster.

Born and raised in Yorkshire, he earned his medical degree from Leeds School of Medicine in 1992. After practicing in general medicine, he transitioned into medical journalism in 1997, starting with the BMJ, followed by editorial roles at the Bulletin of the World Health Organization and later at the JRSM. He holds fellowships at both the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Physicians of London.

Abbasi has contributed as a consultant editor for PLOS Medicine and has been instrumental in creating e-learning tools aimed at physicians’ continuing education, such as BMJ Learning and the video lecture platform offered by the Royal Society of Medicine.

His publications include cricket-focused books: Zindabad; The English Chronicles: a Modern History of Pakistan Cricket (2012) and Englistan: An Immigrant's Journey on the Turbulent Winds of Pakistan Cricket (2020).

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Abbasi curated a series entitled "Spotlight on COVID-19" for the JRSM and authored analyses addressing the UK's pandemic response, covering topics like personal protective equipment supply, readiness efforts, concerns about hospital avoidance, and issues surrounding political responsibility.

Early life and education

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, Kamran Abbasi relocated to Rotherham, Yorkshire in 1974. He completed his secondary education at Oakwood School and continued at Thomas Rotherham College in South Yorkshire. He graduated with a medical degree from Leeds School of Medicine in 1992.

Career

Following five years practicing internal medicine across Yorkshire and London, Abbasi joined the staff of the BMJ in 1997, transitioning from roles at the Royal London Hospital and St Bartholomew's Hospital. His progression included positions as editorial registrar, assistant editor, deputy editor (2002), acting editor (2004), with mentorship from then-editor Richard Smith. On 1 January 2022, Abbasi was appointed editor-in-chief of the BMJ, succeeding Fiona Godlee.

Global health and politics

In 1999, Abbasi authored a six-part series in the BMJ critically evaluating the influence of the World Bank on global health initiatives. The following year, he assumed editorship of the Bulletin of the World Health Organization. As executive editor for content at BMJ, he played a pivotal role in expanding its international presence across digital platforms and print editions. A highlight was launching themed international editions, which he regards as among his most important accomplishments. The inaugural themed issue debuted in 2003; soon after, he co-led an international theme issue focusing on South Asia that underscored advantages from investing in primary healthcare and girls’ education in Sri Lanka and Kerala. This initiative resulted in establishing a dedicated South Asia section on the BMJ website starting in 2013.

While serving as acting editor in October 2004, Abbasi handled an extensive influx of responses to an article by Derek Summerfield that criticized alleged Israeli army actions in Gaza and their effects on public health. The strong reactions highlighted editorial challenges when addressing politically sensitive subjects. In response, Abbasi authored an editorial titled "Should journals mix medicine and politics?" acknowledging that many replies were "largely biased and inflammatory on both sides" but stressing that medical discourse cannot be detached from political contexts during times of conflict.

COVID-19 pandemic

Throughout 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, he released critical analyses addressing the "scandals of COVID-19," focusing on challenges such as the scarcity of personal protective equipment for frontline National Health Service workers, deficiencies in the UK's pandemic readiness, and widespread public anxiety regarding hospital care. In May 2020, alongside Bobbie Jacobson and Gabriel Scally, he co-wrote "The UK's public health response to covid-19," which condemned the UK’s handling of the crisis as "too little, too late, too flawed." They emphasized shortcomings in community-based case detection, testing protocols, and contact tracing. This critique appeared in the New Statesman and was further examined in publications such as Medscape, the British Journal of Social Psychology, and Practice Nurse. His series of editorials on COVID-19 for the JRSM were published under the title "Spotlight on COVID-19." During this period, he also explored the politicization of science, and after global COVID-19 fatalities exceeded two million by February 2021, he invoked the phrase "social murder" to demand political responsibility.

Other journals

Since 2005, Abbasi has held the position of editor at the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine. He is also credited with founding BMJ Learning, an online educational platform.

Other roles

He occupies a visiting professorship within Imperial College London's Department of Primary Care and Public Health, participates as a member of the General Advisory Council at the King's Fund, and holds Fellowships at both the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and the Royal College of Physicians of London. Furthermore, he acts as a patron for the South Asian Health Foundation.

Abbasi has served as a consultant editor for PLOS Medicine and has developed three e-learning tools aimed at supporting doctors' ongoing professional development, including BMJ Learning and the Royal Society of Medicine's video lecture series.

His consultancy experience extends to organisations such as Harvard University, the NHS, the World Health Organization, and McKinsey & Co.

In broadcasting, Abbasi has contributed to both radio and television, notably co-hosting alongside Mark Porter and providing a critical perspective on BBC Radio 4's weekly medical programme Inside Health. He is also a regular contributor to Dawn, a prominent Pakistani English-language newspaper.

His influence has been consistently acknowledged with inclusion among "the 50 most influential BAME people in health" by the Health Service Journal.

Cricket

Abbasi has been an avid cricket follower since the 1970s and began writing internationally about Pakistan cricket from 1996 onwards. He initially launched his blog Pak Spin on Cricinfo.com, focusing on cricket-related politics. Notably, he became the first Asian columnist for an English cricket magazine when contributing to Wisden Cricket Monthly. In 2000, he reported on the Hansie Cronje match-fixing controversy, observing that simplistic racial interpretations surrounding the scandal were becoming increasingly untenable.

In 2004, Abbasi co-authored a study examining how Pakistan's 1986 triumph over India in the Austral-Asia Cup influenced matches up until 2003. His publications include The English Chronicles: Zindabad: A Modern History of Pakistan Cricket (2012) and Englistan: An Immigrant's Journey on the Turbulent Winds of Pakistan Cricket (2020).

Articles

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BMJ thematic editions

Journalistic works

Books

Additional reading

External links

Related profiles

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