Nicholas Joseph Talley, MD, PhD, FRACP, FACG
on his father Nicholas Alexander Talley, MBBS, FRACP, FACG

I am extremely proud of my father and my father’s contributions to medicine and gastroenterology. There must be some genetic component in wanting to serve the community as a physician, or perhaps it’s mostly about early environment. My father’s father was a famous respiratory physician noted for his work in tuberculosis in Hungary. My father migrated to Australia from Hungary, but this would have been impossible without a U.S. official in Prague who granted him a Visa to come through the United States; the official was apparently very impressed by my father’s perfect command of English. Dad escaped from Budapest in 1947 with his elderly aunt in tow, jumping on a train to Prague with only a 48 hour pass and what little they could carry. My father arrived in Sydney with no money but a mighty resolve to succeed. He graduated with honors from the University of Sydney medical school in 1954, but he did this with no family to help him and no financial support; his success continues to inspire me. Dad had to work night shifts to pay for rent and food, then attend University classes during the day for the first three years before he was finally awarded a scholarship; I’m not sure very many current graduates could successfully complete such a task, and I continue to be awe struck by the dogged determination this must have required, a characteristic I may well have inherited.

After graduating, my father spent a year working in pediatrics in Perth where I was born in 1956, and then we all returned to Sydney so he could undertake sub-specialty training in internal medicine followed by gastroenterology. Dad trained with some of the best physicians in the country including Dr. Brian Billington at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sydney, with whom I also undertook a period of training more than 25 years later.

My father has always been very academically orientated, but the experience of having to survive in a new country with no financial support had a profound influence on him; he elected to go into private practice following training to ensure his family would not have to endure any such ordeals. His support of the family has continued ever since in many different forms. Despite being in private practice, Dad’s skills as a clinician, educator and administrator were quickly noticed; he built up an extremely successful practice (which he hoped I’d join, perhaps his greatest personal disappointment) and he was Chair of the Department of Medicine at St. George Hospital, a major teaching hospital in Sydney where he also held a staff appointment for many years.

Dad has always been at the cutting edge of new technology and advances in the field. In 1966, he won a Kellogg’s Scholarship and took the family to Chicago to work with Professor Joseph Kirsner in inflammatory bowel disease. Joe still remembered Dad when I last met with him in 2005. I was lucky enough to go to the local public school in Chicago over this period, which had a profound influence on me in terms of stimulating my love of

I remember when I was very young being required sometimes to go to the hospital with Dad and sit in the car while he did ward rounds, which I must say seemed very tedious. I also remember the long hours he worked and regret I could not spend more time with him because of them, although I always understood what he was doing and why it was so important. There is no doubt that my father’s discussions around the dinner table covering politics, religion, science and history profoundly influenced my interests.

I knew two years before I graduated from high school that I definitely wanted to be a doctor, although I did not really know what type of doctor I wanted to be. I tried very hard not to become a gastroenterologist. When I started medical school I thought I would like to be a family practitioner and work in the country; this seemed very attractive to a first year student. However, by the time I began to see complex patients in the wards and better understood the system, I realized I was really interested in internal medicine and cutting edge research and technology, and family practice was not going to offer the kind of career that would satisfy me. I remember shadowing my father when I was a medical student and being amazed at the breadth and depth of his knowledge in internal medicine and gastroenterology. I particularly liked my rotations in gastroenterology as a resident, but I also decided at this time the last thing I would do would be gastroenterology, because that would mean there would be two Nick Talley’s in the field and who would ever be able to tell us apart?

Towards the end of internal medicine residency training, I elected to undertake a period of research. I wanted to see whether I would be able to cut it as a medical researcher or not. I initially planned to spend no more than one year doing clinical research before starting full-time sub-specialty training, although I had not chosen the specialty! My father pointed me in the direction of Professor Douglas Piper, an international authority in peptic ulcer disease at the time at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, and my career in gastroenterology never looked back. I ended up spending four years doing research combined with gastroenterology training, and was awarded a PhD. My father was then again inspirational in pointing me in the direction of a post-doctoral research opportunity at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (to work with the famous expatriate Australian, Professor Sidney Phillips), which fundamentally set the course of my career. It is really my father who deserves the credit for much of the success that I have had.

Dad continues to work part-time as a gastroenterologist; he has been in this role for over fifty years and remains as sharp as a tack. He taught me that roadblocks will occur in life but all can be overcome, that diligence pays off. He taught me that the best physicians learn from their colleagues and their patients, and no one can know it all (although his near photographic memory is astounding). I have written highly successful textbooks for undergraduates about how to take histories from patients and examine them, and am well known for this work outside of gastroenterology, but to be frank, my father’s clinical skill level continues to astonish me. My father trained and inspired many others too; several prominent gastroenterologists around the country benefited from his penetrating mind providing unbiased advice.

Overall, I think I am very fortunate to have my Dad as a role model. Mind you, when we both go to a major GI meeting invariably my hotel room is taken by him and I have to find another at short notice if I can (because who would believe there are two Nick Talley’s who are both gastroenterologists?). My own father lost his father when he was 17 (my grandfather was killed by the Nazis). My father had to struggle alone in a strange land to become a gastroenterologist, and he overcame remarkable odds. Now in his 80’s, I know he feels he could have done more professionally, but I doubt few men could have done as much in two lifetimes; his legacy in my mind is assured. I have been lucky to have the best Dad in the world.