Professor William Mcintosh started in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at the Johannesburg Hospital and University of the Witwatersrand in 1969. He became head of the division in 1982 and was the first full professor of Otorhinolaryngology at the University although there were many eminent Otorhinolaryngology as department heads from the beginning of the 20century. During this time 17 South African and over 10 international department head professors were trained and over 60% of all South African ENT surgeons were training here, most of whom are still in South Africa. Less than 3 % of our College of Surgery candidates needed a second attempt at their final fellowship examination. We had 3 PhDs completed and 25 masterates and co supervised 3 MBA’s. Our undergraduate course record has been even more satistying with consistent bell curves skewed towards higher marks. Not one student has failed his year because of his ENT training in 30 years.
He has since guided another Phd.

Under Prof McIntosh’s guidance key subspecialties of Otorhinolaryngology were built up. Head and Neck surgery grew from a small clinic and one operating list at the then J.S Strydom Hospital, per fortnight to a speciality doing over 700 major procedures per year with world class results by the early 1980’s. The division was described by major international Head and Neck surgeons as the best training centre in the world for head and neck surgery by the end of the 1980’s. A very active skull base surgery unit was established from the late 1970’s which pioneered much of this surgery for the Southern hemisphere, with an especially extensive world experience in the management of head and neck paragangliomas. Facial cosmetic and especially cosmetic nasal surgery expanded from the ground work of Dr Charles Aaronson and was extensively taught until the Johannesburg Hospital demographics and priorities changed.

In 1980 we established a 24 place Microsurgery Laboratory, fully equipped with state of the art instrumentation which was used for a number of international courses and was the base for temporal bone surgery for post graduate surgeons. It was also used for microsurgery training by other departments. His department started using nasal endoscopy in the early 1980’s as well as rhino manometry and laryngeal spectography. In the 1990’s he started video spectography.

Prof Mcintosh’s interest in ENT were very wide. He was the first doing micro laryngeal surgery and was the first person from 1970 using the Carbon Dioxide laser regularly n South Africa in 1978 and was assisting most other specialties with this work for many years before it became universal. The First Neuro-otology and balance disorders clinic in South Africa was manned by him from 1971 and this became part of the training rotation of all post graduates. His interests were also wider than medicine. He obtained his private pilot’s license as an intern, worked at the Institute of Aviation and Military Medicine and is a life member of the South African Society of Aerospace Medicine. He is an honorary member of the Society of Rhinoplastic Surgeons of South Africa. 

He holds a number of certificates and diplomas in Project management and business science especially Healthcare Management and statistics. He is a life member of AMSUS, the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States. He is a life member of the Photographic Society of South Africa and is active in civic affairs and the community police forum in the region. His other hobby Is travel especially to nature and world heritage sites.

He was on the executive of the College of Otorhinolaryngology for 25 years, mostly as secretary or chairman and was an examiner or examination convener for this time. He was also on the examiners panel for the FRCS Edinburgh. He was invited to be a founder member of the International Society of Skull Base Surgeons. He was elected a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and to membership of the American Academy of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, The American Society of Head and Neck Surgery, the Society of Head and Neck Surgery of the United States and the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons.

He was on the executive for many years of the South African Society of Otorhinolaryngology / Head and Neck Surgery and the South Africa Society and Oncology and the South Africa Society of Full time Medical Specialists. He was a founder member of the South African Association of Medical Education and the South African Medical Informatics Group.

He has been on the editorial board and a reviewer of a major international journal since the late 1980’s and been an invited speaker in the United kingdom, Republic of China, Europe, Australia, Hong Kong and Mainland China. He was registered to practice in the Uk from 1972.

He is an honorary professor to the Tri-Services Medical School in Taiwan and in 1981 was the official consultant to the Presidential Family of Taiwan for Otorhinolaryngology.

He has an advanced diploma in Hearing Aid Acoustics from the University of Pretoria. He has a certificate in foundations of Medico Legal Practice from the University of Cape Town.

He is on the executive of the Reserve Force Council which is a statutory advisory body to the Minister of Defense and is honorary life vice president.

He is one of the few South Africans to have been listed for many years in Who’ Who in the World and Who’s Who in Science and Technology.

He did not take a day’s sick leave for his entire medical and student career.

He is a senior member of SAMLA, the South African Medico Legal Association.

He became Professor Emeritus in Otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery of the University of Witwatersrand in 2004.

He is a life member of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa.

He now works as an expert medico legal witness mainly in defense of ENT Colleagues