Peter John Ryan

Peter John Ryan OAM, MS, FRCS, FRACS, FISA (Hon), (25 November 1925 – 3 June 2002) was a consultant surgeon at St Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. He was born in Dookie, Victoria in 1925, and attended Assumption College, Kilmore . He qualified in medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1948. He led the first St Vincent’s Hospital civilian surgical team to work in Long Xuyen, Vietnam, from October 1965 - January 1966. In 1986 he was made Hunterian Professor of Surgery by the Royal College of Surgeons (London) and delivered his oration on diverticular disease. In 1988 he published "A Very Short Textbook of Surgery" (3rd edition, 1994, Chapman and Hall, London), and this was also translated into Indonesian and Mandarin. He also worked as an honorary consultant surgeon one morning per month for almost 20 years from 1981, at the VAHS (Victorian Aboriginal Health Service). He died from cancer on 3 June 2002.

Ryan was President of the International Society of University Colon and Rectal Surgeons from 1986 to 1988 and colorectal cancer was a major medical study of his professional life. Ryan chaired the ISUCRS's Congress in Melbourne in 1980.

Another of his medical lifetime interests was road safety and driving. He was a founding member of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' Road Trauma Committee, which was partially responsible for the introduction of compulsory seat belts in cars in Victoria, in 1970, the first state in the world to pass such a law (Seat belt legislation). In May 1965 Ryan supported a motion to investigate the causes of road accidents in Australia.

In 1996 the Peter Ryan Prize for Surgical Research for final year St Vincent’s medical students was established in his honour.