Martin McKee

Martin McKee qualified in medicine in Belfast, Northern Ireland, with subsequent training in internal medicine and public health. He is Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine where he established the European Centre on Health of Societies in Transition (ECOHOST), a WHO Collaborating Centre that comprises the largest team of researchers working on health and health policy in central and eastern Europe an d the former Soviet Union. He is also research director of the European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, a unique partnership of universities, national and regional governments, and international agencies. He has published over 970 scientific papers, 44 books, and 127 book chapters, with over 50,000 citations and a h-index of 106. In a 2014 bibilometric study he was identified as the most productive researcher in global health systems research. He is Past President of the European Public Health Association and he served as an editor of the European Journal of Public Health for 15 years (six as editor in chief) and a member of 16 editorial boards. He has given many endowed lectures, including the Milroy Lecture (Royal College of Physicians), the Cochrane Lecture (UK Society for Social Medicine), Ferenc Bojan Lecture (European Public Health Association), DARE Lecture (UK Faculty of Public Health), Victor Horsley lecture (BMA), Thackrah lecture (University of Leeds), Duncan lecture (City of Liverpool), Hjelt lecture (University of Helsinki), Dixon lecture (Ulster Medical Society), Neuberger lecture (Hebrew University), and Sandy Macara lecture (BMA). He has been chair of the UK Society for Social Medicine and was a trustee of the UK Public Health Association. He sits on a number of advisory boards in Europe and North America, in both the public and private sectors, including the European Commission’s Expert panel on Investing in Health, and is a former chair of the WHO’s European Advisory Committee on Health Research and of the Global Health Advisory Committee of the Open Societies Foundations, based in New York. He is a Fellow of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of London, Edinburgh and Ireland and the UK Faculty of Public Health. His contributions to European health policy have been recognised by, among others, election to the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, the Romanian Academy of Medical Sciences, and the US Institute of Medicine, by the award of honorary doctorates from Hungary, The Netherlands, Greece, and Sweden (twice) and visiting professorships at the Universities of Zagreb and Belgrade, the London School of Economics, and the Taipei Medical University, as well as appointment as a distinguished international scholar at the University of Pennsylvania and McMaster University, Canada. In 2003 he was awarded the Andrija Stampar medal for contributions to European public health, in 2014 the Alwyn Smith Prize for outstanding contributions to the health of the population, and in 2015 the Donabedian International Award for contributions to quality of care. In 2005 was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by HM Queen Elizabeth II. He has an active following on Twitter as @martinmckee