Michael Rigby

Biography

After graduating from Keele in 1968 I joined the NHS as a policy researcher in Cheshire County Council Health Department, progressing through various service development and planning roles to Regional Service Planning Officer for Mersey Regional Health Authority in 1983.

In 1986 I returned to Keele as Lecturer in the Centre for Health Planning and Management, with a portfolio of teaching, research, and external advisory work, focussing on health information, service quality and service planning, particularly for non-acute services. I progressed to a personal Chair in Health Information Strategy in 2005.

I retired in 2009 and was appointed Emeritus Professor. I now live in Ireland and undertake selected policy and research advisory roles.

Research and scholarship

My main area of research was in the use of information in service planning and quality assurance, and in the early development of electronic health records, which progressed into e-health and digital health. The application fields were mainly in non-acute services, particularly child health, care of the elderly, and in integrated care. I undertook embedded development work with the NHS Information Centre, Plymouth Community Services NHS Trust, and St. John of God Services in Ireland.

While at Keele I was active in a number of European research projects. I designed and led the Child Health Indicators of Life and Development (CHILD) project 2000 – 2002. Since retirement I was invited to co-direct two major European Union research projects – a Research Inventory of Child Health in Europe (RICHE) from Dublin City University, and Models of Child Health Appraised (MOCHA) (www.childhealthservicemodels.eu) from Imperial College London.

I have held Professorial appointments at the Nordic School of Public Health (Sweden), Dublin City University, and Imperial College London.

Teaching

I taught on the Keele MBA (Health Executive) for all my time at Keele. I also supervised PhD students at Keele and (since retirement) at the Department of International Health, University of Maastricht.

Further information

I am appointed by the Minister of Health for Ireland as a Board Member of the Irish Health Information and Quality Authority, and to the National Screening Advisory Committee.

I am on the register of experts on health for the European Commission, and on digital health for the World Health Organization. I contribute to the Working Group on Technology Assessment and Quality Development of the International Medical Informatics Association.

I am the Health expert on the feasibility study for a European Commission Child Guarantee of basic services for children who are disadvantaged or vulnerable in the EU.

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