Professor Malcolm Whitfield

Professor Malcolm David Whitfield PhD MBA RGN RMN FRSM

Lab4Living Health Director
Director of Centre for Health & Social Care Research
Assistant Dean of Research & Business Development for the Faculty of Health & Wellbeing
E-mail m.whitfield@shu.ac.uk
Phone 0114 225 5453
Fax 0114 225 4377

My involvement in the Lab4Living project is the result of my passion for bringing together disparate research ideas to resolve the practical problems experienced every day, by people health problems.

My clinical, managerial and academic careers have all moved me incrementally towards my main area of expertise, which lies in the pragmatic use of research evidence to solve operational and systemic problems in the delivery of healthcare.

I am particularly focused on developing the interface between theory and practice in health service delivery and the optimisation of care delivery in terms of both cost and clinical effectiveness. My recent research activities are focused on applying this approach to explore the economic arguments for investment in public health programs and the clinical effectiveness of prevention, early intervention and systematic treatment of early stage disease. The lab for living program helps me to adapt these approaches to the pro-active management and prevention of disability through imaginative use of design and technology.

Unlike many senior academics my key strength lies in the breadth of my experience in the field of health. I have operated as a clinician, a manager, a policy analyst and researcher and have had the opportunity to debate these issues at the highest levels in health systems internationally in the past.

Although I am new to the Lab4living program I hope I can bring a new dimension to its development. Most of my research colleagues are interested in the questions is it safe? and does it work? My focus is on the question is it worth it?