Ian Donald was the Glasgow professor who gave the world obstetric ultrasound, the scanning technique that lets doctors see the unborn child and that has since become part of almost every pregnancy. He made his breakthrough by turning the flaw-detecting sonar of the Clyde’s heavy industry to the service of medicine.
A doctor’s son
Born in Cornwall in 1910 into a Scottish family of doctors, Donald was educated in Scotland and South Africa before studying medicine in London. During the Second World War he served as an RAF medical officer, and it was there, working with radar and sonar, that he gained the knowledge which would later transform his field.
Regius Professor at Glasgow
In 1954 Donald was appointed Regius Professor of Midwifery at the University of Glasgow, a Crown appointment, and it was in the city, at the Western Infirmary, that his great work was done. He made it a condition of taking the post that a new maternity hospital be built, part of the city’s long tradition in medicine and learning.
Seeing the unborn
Donald realised that the ultrasonic flaw-detectors used in the Clyde’s shipyards and boiler-works to find cracks in metal might also be used to see inside the human body. With the engineer Tom Brown of the Glasgow firm Kelvin and Hughes, and the obstetrician John MacVicar, he built a series of scanners, and in 1958 published in The Lancet the first ultrasound image of an unborn baby. It was a revolution born in part of Glasgow’s industrial heritage.
The Queen Mother’s Hospital
Donald went on to build the world’s first dedicated obstetric ultrasound machine, the Diasonograph, and to design the Queen Mother’s Maternity Hospital in Glasgow, opened in 1964, the first in the world with a room set aside for ultrasound. By the 1970s his technique was standard practice across the globe. He takes his place among the great Glasgow medical pioneers, alongside figures such as Sir William Macewen.
A life that touched millions
Appointed CBE, and troubled all his life by the heart disease that led to three major operations, Donald died in 1987. Few medical advances of the twentieth century have touched more lives than the one he pioneered in Glasgow.
Related questions
Who was Ian Donald?
The Glasgow professor of midwifery who pioneered the use of ultrasound in pregnancy, allowing doctors to see the unborn child for the first time.
How did Ian Donald invent obstetric ultrasound?
He adapted the ultrasonic flaw-detectors used in the Clyde’s shipyards and heavy industry, working with the engineer Tom Brown, to see inside the body.
What was his connection to Glasgow?
He was Regius Professor of Midwifery at the University of Glasgow, developed ultrasound at the city’s Western Infirmary, and designed the Queen Mother’s Maternity Hospital.
Why is Ian Donald important?
His pioneering of obstetric ultrasound in Glasgow transformed the care of pregnancy, and scanning became standard medical practice around the world.