Keele University’s Professor Elaine Hay has been presented with her MBE medal by Prince William for services to medical research.

Elaine, a Professor of Community Rheumatology, was honoured at an investiture ceremony at Windsor Castle, attended by other award recipients and her family.

She said: "I feel very honoured and very privileged to have received this award. To accept my MBE from Prince William was such a wonderful experience and it was a day me and my family will remember for many years to come.

"It was great to get the opportunity to talk to Prince William about my work, Keele University and Staffordshire, and he was interested to know about the research we have carried out and any breakthroughs we had made. We talked for a few minutes, and it didn’t feel rushed at all.

"After we shook hands and he congratulated me again, as I walked away, I felt quite overwhelmed by the experience. Since the news of me receiving this honour became public at the end of last year, I have had so many people get in touch to congratulate me, including a lot of people I worked with in the past and hadn't spoken to for years. The response has been very special."

Elaine has devoted her career to understanding the causes and consequences of back pain and other musculoskeletal disorders, and to improving primary care for patients through her research focused on evaluating new treatments. She is the author of about 400 peer-reviewed papers in publications including The Lancet and British Medical Journal.

Her work has contributed to national policies and international guidelines and has led to service redesign in the NHS that has reduced wait times and improved care for patients. In the last 30 years, Elaine has secured almost £40 million in external grants to support new research into diseases and conditions like osteoarthritis and tennis elbow, leading to Keele University and its clinical partners in North Staffordshire becoming internationally renowned in the field of primary care musculoskeletal research.

Elaine came to North Staffordshire in 1994 as a Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Community Rheumatology at the Haywood Hospital, in Stoke-on-Trent, and Keele University. In 2004 she was promoted to Professor of Community Rheumatology at Keele and was one of the three founding members of the University's Research Institute for Primary Care and Health Sciences (PCHS), where Elaine led the clinical trials programme that was influential in transforming research at the University.

She was appointed Director of the Versus Arthritis for Primary Care Centre based at Keele in 2010, and in recognition of her contribution to primary care research was awarded Distinguished Membership of the British Society for Rheumatology in 2016, and Honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2017.

Elaine is also a National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator (Emeritus) and was Programme Director of the NIHR's Programme Grants for Applied Research between 2018 and 2023.

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