Michael Polkey

Biography

Professor Polkey qualified from the University of Bristol (1988) and trained in general medicine before specialising in respiratory medicine. He received a PhD (1998) for studies investigating the properties of the diaphragm in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) under the supervision of Professor John Moxham and was appointed as a consultant in respiratory medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital in 2000. He gave the Linacre lecture of the Royal College of Physicians in 2005 and was the inaugural recipient of the Moran Campbell lectureship of the British Thoracic Society. He received a personal chair from Imperial College in 2007. He was chair of the Science and Research committee of the British Thoracic Society and organised the winter scientific meeting in 2009 &10. He is associate editor of the European Respiratory Journal and Clinical Science and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Physiology. His clinical practice involves the assessment of patients with advanced COPD for rehabilitation, home ventilation and lung volume reduction surgery. He is therefore expert in the clinical assessment of such patients including diverse measures of skeletal muscle strength and bulk. Clinically he is also expert in the management of sleep disorders including Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and in conditions requiring non-invasive respiratory support especially Motor Neurone Disease. Professor Polkey heads the respiratory muscle laboratory at Brompton which has the capacity to provide detailed assessment of respiratory muscle function including phrenic nerve stimulation and measurement of transdiaphragmatic pressure.

Research Interest

Motor Neurone Diseases, Respiratory Medicine