Professor Michael Polkey

Professor Polkey is a respiratory physician who qualified from the University of Bristol in 1988. His expertise lies in the field of respiratory medicine, particularly in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). He completed his PhD in 1998, studying the properties of the diaphragm in COPD. Following this, he was appointed as a consultant in respiratory medicine at the prestigious Royal Brompton Hospital in 2000.

As a respected figure in his field, Professor Polkey has been invited to deliver several prestigious lectureships and has received numerous accolades, including the Moran Campbell lectureship of the British Thoracic Society. He also holds a personal chair from Imperial College, awarded in 2007.

Professor Polkey's clinical practice focuses on the assessment of patients with advanced COPD for rehabilitation, home ventilation, and lung volume reduction surgery. He is an expert in the clinical assessment of such patients, including measures of skeletal muscle strength and bulk. Additionally, he is a specialist in the management of sleep disorders such as Obstructive Sleep Apnoea and in conditions requiring non-invasive respiratory support, particularly Motor Neurone Disease.

Professor Polkey is the head of the respiratory muscle laboratory at Brompton, which is renowned for its detailed assessment of respiratory muscle function.

Professor Polkey's contributions to the field of respiratory medicine have been widely recognized, and he is an associate editor of the European Respiratory Journal and Clinical Science. He also serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Applied Physiology.