When Linda Luxon, who has died aged 75 of a brain tumour, began her medical career, few had heard of “audiovestibular medicine”. First recognised as a medical specialty in 1975, it treats a wide range of disorders that affect hearing and balance. The vestibular system controls balance and spatial orientation through organs located in the vestibule, a bony cavity of the inner ear. These organs detect head movement and send signals to the brain so that we stay upright and balanced. When the system malfunctions, dizziness, vertigo and tinnitus can result.
According to her close colleague Doris-Eva Bamiou, Luxon became the specialty’s pioneer and “poster child”, giving it academic rigour and promoting it widely. In 1991 she was appointed professor of audiovestibular medicine at University College London (UCL). There she anchored the new specialty in evidence-based research, systematically delineating all the different disorders and setting criteria for diagnosis. She wrote or co-authored a number of key reference titles and more than 175 research papers.
Luxon became a world leader in vestibular diagnosis, giving keynote talks at international conferences, and researched rare genetic hearing-loss conditions such as Usher and Pendred syndromes. She also researched novel vestibular rehabilitation strategies such as virtual reality techniques to help people tolerate the situations that provoked their dizziness and other symptoms.
Her specialty urgently needed more doctors. Patients with audiovestibular disorders were being treated by other specialists, such as ear, nose and throat surgeons, who did not have the necessary expertise. According to Bamiou, it led, for example, to cases of vertigo being attributed to just one condition, Ménière’s disease. In a 2008 report Luxon said audiovestibular disorders were far more widespread than people thought – affecting 30-40% of people over 60 – yet even patients with quite routine problems had to visit a doctor an average of three or four times before getting a diagnosis.
To train more doctors, Luxon set up and led an MSc course in audiovestibular medicine at UCL’s Ear Institute. The institute is a centre of excellence where, as well as teaching, Luxon mentored PhD and postdoctoral students, helping to advance research into a wide range of issues.
Treating children with audiovestibular conditions promptly is particularly important to avoid harming their development, and, as well as her work at UCL, Luxon was instrumental in setting up a paediatric audiovestibular service at Great Ormond Street hospital in London, where she held a weekly clinic.
Born in Maidstone, Kent, Linda was the younger of two children of Maitland (nee Barrowman), who worked in the Admiralty before becoming a home-maker, and Stuart Luxon, a senior scientific civil servant. She inherited their love of dance and particularly enjoyed tap dancing. They were a close family, and much later Linda’s parents, who both lived to be 99, came to live with her so she could care for them properly.
From Maidstone grammar school for girls, where she excelled at maths, Linda went to St Thomas’ hospital in London to train in medicine. While a student, she took up skiing and journeyed overland one summer to Afghanistan. As well as studying medicine, she also completed a BSc in biochemistry.
While working in the intensive care department at St Thomas’, Luxon met John Coltart, a cardiologist. They married in 1977 and had four children – Rupert, Cordelia, Clementine and Christianna.
In 1972 Luxon qualified in medicine. She decided to specialise in neurology at Middlesex hospital, London, and while on a rotation at the National Hospital for Neurology in Queen Square, London, she met Ronald Hinchcliffe, an eminent researcher responsible for getting audiovestibular medicine recognised as a specialty. He saw her potential and encouraged her. Aged only 32, in 1980 Luxon became the first female consultant at the National. So novel was it to have a female consultant that it took a few months before staff realised she needed to be invited to the regular consultant meetings.
Her chair in audiovestibular medicine at UCL followed, and in 2010 she was appointed CBE.
Elegant, courteous and hardworking, Luxon was an inspiring role model for young female doctors and cared deeply about mentoring the next generation. She had great energy and, despite a ferocious workload, colleagues said she always had a certain joie de vivre. One of her children remarked: “We didn’t know when she slept. We thought she had a doppelganger.”
Luxon wanted to influence medicine at the highest level and was skilled at steering committees and reaching consensus. In a voluntary capacity she chaired many bodies connected with her work, such as the British Association of Audiovestibular Physicians, the British Society of Audiology and the European Federation of Audiological Societies. She was also the audiology adviser to the Department of Health and Ministry of Defence.
She became the first female treasurer of the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), from 2010 to 18, as well as a trustee and first female honorary treasurer of the Royal Society of Medicine. At the RCP, as well as taking responsibility for finances, she oversaw preparations for the 500th anniversary, in 2018, and work on climate change and sustainability. For its Future Healthcare Journal in 2015 she wrote Infrastructure – the Key to Healthcare Improvement, about how hospitals could be better designed.
After retiring from UCL as professor emeritus in 2010, she continued with NHS clinics. As ever, she enjoyed playing tennis and the company of her family, to whom she was devoted.
In 2004, she and her husband divorced, but they remained close. She is survived by her children, seven grandchildren and her brother, Stuart.
• Linda Maitland Luxon, audiovestibular physician, born 13 April 1948; died 2 September 2023
