• Clinical epidemiology

Hanging on the wall in my office are two obituaries, one of Dr Charles Fletcher who died in 19951 and the other of Dr Benjamin Burrows who died in 2002.2 Their pictures look over the desk where I do a great deal of my work and provide inspiration and, through their collective body of work, guidance. I would like to think that the work that I do continues in a very small way the work that these giants in our field started. Dr Fletcher was responsible for, among other accomplishments, defining the natural history of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in his landmark study of British men.3–5 Dr Burrows founded the Tucson Epidemiological Study of Airway Obstructive Disease (TESAOD)6 that has added greatly to our knowledge of respiratory disease. Drs Fletcher and Burrows trained and mentored many of our current leaders in respiratory health and coauthored several publications.7 8 An ongoing legacy of Dr Burrows is the TESAOD, which continues to provide valuable and important information relevant to today.

The publication by Guerra et al in this issue of Thorax (see page 499) provides an example of Dr Burrows' ongoing legacy and the convergence of his work with that of …