John Hampton: author of the The ECG Made Easy, one of the founders of Nottingham medical school and challenger of medical orthodoxies

If a life was measured by five star Amazon reviews, then John Hampton would be judged to have had a great one. Hampton, professor of cardiology at Nottingham University and one of the founders of the university’s medical school, was the author of The ECG Made Easy ,1 a pocket guide to deciphering electrocardiograms. Now in its 10th edition, this little book has sold more than 750 000 copies and saved many a medical student and newly qualified doctor faced with the impenetrable lines of an ECG. The ECG Made Easy started as a handful of photocopied ECGs that accompanied Hampton’s lectures—the bundle got bigger until it eventually became a book, first published in 1973 and now co-edited by his daughter Joanna, a geriatrician at Addenbrooke’s Hospital. When Joanna posted about her father’s death on doctors.net, many replied in praise of the author. “He was one of the greatest teachers I never met,” one wrote. In the book Hampton said ECG interpretation was as easy as counting squares—a straightforward educational approach that had not been used before. Dave Adlam, professor at the University of Leicester, worked with Hampton as a young registrar and edited later editions, as well as the more technical The ECG Made Practical .2 He said …