He graduated with his medical doctorate (MD) from Johns Hopkins in 1947 and returned to Guy's Hospital in London the same year.
He then spent two years with the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) as a surgeon with deployments in Asia including Japan and Korea.
[4] The aim of Parks' ileo-anal pouch was to improve quality of life after a person needed to have their colon and rectum removed because of disease by providing select people who were medically suitable the option to choose between having their anal evacuation route reconstructed or life with a permanent ileostomy.
This not only restored anal evacuation but was intended to improve the patient's function by reducing the frequency of defaecation, as was reported to be high from the ileum-anal anastomosis (without pouch) as described by Ravich and Sabiston in 1947.
[4] Sir Alan Parks died in London on 3 November 1982 at St Bartholomew's Hospital after emergency cardiac surgery while he was in office as president of the Royal College of Surgeons.