Adam Linton qualified from the University of Edinburgh in 1955 and then did postgraduate training in medicine and nephrology in Glasgow, where, as a newly appointed consultant nephrologist, he was responsible for establishing the dialysis unit at Glasgow Western Infirmary.

Relocating to North America, he was appointed in 1970 as professor of medicine at the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario where he spent the rest of his career. He gained much respect from his achievements including rebuilding the Department of Medicine at the Victoria Hospital.

Resigning for this position in 1984, he immersed himself in local medical politics where he was a highly regarded, becoming President of the Ontario Medical Association in 1991.

He used to say that his two favourite hobbies were medical politics and golf.

An appreciation of Adam Linton by his colleagues including fellow Scot, Robert Lindsay, who also settled in London Ontario, was published in the journal Renal Failure in 1994.