Martin Roland, B.M. B.Ch., D.M.

Martin Roland was educated at Oxford University, where he earned a first class honours degree in physiological sciences in 1972 and qualified as a doctor in 1975. Since then, he has combined general practice with a series of academic posts, initially at London University, then at Cambridge, and since 1992, as Professor of General Practice at Manchester University. Professor Roland works part time as a general practitioner in Manchester.

Professor Roland is director of the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre, based at the University of Manchester, UK. This Centre employs 35 research staff from a wide range of disciplines, and carries out research to inform primary care policy in the UK. He has also recently been appointed as director of the new National School of Primary Care Research, a funded collaboration between the five leading academic primary care departments in the UK. Professor Roland’s research interests have included quality of care, back pain in general practice, hospital referrals, use of time in general practice, and out of hours care. His main research interests at the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre relate to quality of care, with a particular focus on developing ways of measuring and improving the quality of primary care.

His academic work has enabled him to make particular contributions to professional development in general practice. He was an adviser to the UK government on the new pay for performance scheme, which now forms a major part of the remuneration of family practitioners in the UK. Professor Roland was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 for “Services to Medicine.”