Professor Richard Lilford, CBE FMedSci, DSc (hon), PhD, FRCOG, FRCP, FFPH, FRCGP (hon)

Professor Richard Lilford

Department of Applied Health Sciences
Director of National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Applied Research Centre West Midlands (ARC WM)

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 6772
Telephone (2)
PA: Melita Harris +44(0)121 414 7540
Email
r.j.lilford@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
Address
Room 107, 1st floor, Murray Learning Centre
Institute of Applied Health Research
College of Medical and Dental Sciences
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Richard Lilford has pursued a successful career in medicine for over 40 years, specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology and more recently, health service research. He has research methodological expertise in the evaluation of complex interventions and prospective health economic evaluations of service delivery interventions. He has designed a framework for the evaluation of complex interventions that draws a crucial distinction between targeted and generic service interventions and is also interested in Bayesian statistics, medical ethics, clinical trials, step-wedge cluster trials, and multiple-indication reviews. He is also invested in global health research, including health and sanitation in low and middle-income countries, treatment and prevention of leprosy and Buruli ulcers, and improving health in slums.

Richard is also Director of the , , Director of NIHR RIGHT: Transforming the Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy and Buruli ulcers in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and Co-director of (NIHR) Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC).  He has published over 400 original research papers and is an investigator on over £35 million worth of government, industry and charity sponsored research grants. In 2018 he was awarded a CBE in recognition of his services to health research.

NIHR RIGHT Leprosy project overview
NIHR global health research in severe stigmatising skin diseases

Qualifications

  • Fellow of the Royal College of General Practitioners (FRCGP) 2019
  • Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health (FFPH) 2003
  • Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians (FRCP) 1997
  • Fellow of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FRCOG) 1996
  • Membership of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine (MFPHM) 1995 
  • PhD in Medicine July 1984
  • Member of the Royal College of Physicians (MRCP) 1981
  • Member, Royal College of Gynaecologists (MRCOG) 1979
  • Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery (MB BCh) 1973

Biography

Born in Cape Town and educated in Johannesburg, Professor Richard Lilford worked in Obstetrics and Gynaecology in Cape Town, before moving to the UK. Eventually he become Head of the Department of Obstetrics & Gynaecology at the University of Leeds where he worked for over ten years. He then spent five years as a senior civil servant before moving into academia at the University 麻豆精选 in 2001, where he had a number of roles including Head of School of Health and Population Sciences, and Vice-Dean for Applied Health Research. In 2014 he moved to a new role as Pro Dean of Research at Warwick Medical School, before returning to Birmingham in late 2019.

Richard is currently Director of the  and the , Director of NIHR RIGHT: Transforming the Treatment and Prevention of Leprosy and Buruli ulcers in Low and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) and Co-director of (NIHR) Midlands Patient Safety Research Collaboration (PSRC).  He has published over 400 original research papers, and numerous articles, editorials, chapters and books, and has been profiled in both the BMJ () and Lancet (). His research interests include the methodology of clinical trials, patient safety, service delivery research, and global health. Richard is member of a number of committees and external bodies, including the  for the UK Government Cabinet Office; the NIHR Global Health Research Centre Funding Committee; and the MRC Global Health Faculty of Experts. Successful recent NIHR funded grants Richard has led on include the , the , and the .

Married to a former General Practitioner, father to three children and grandfather to seven, Richard is also a keen tennis player.

Teaching

Teaching Programmes

  • Teaching medical students – whole class lectures on Safety and Quality in Health Care and Health Economics.
  • Teacher on the Mini-Medical School course.

Research

  • Global health (especially low- and middle-income countries)
  • Health Service research
  • Research Methods – Bayesian
  • Decision analysis
  • Health economics (especially service delivery)
  • Clinical trials
  • Evidence based medicine

Other activities

Indicators of Esteem:

  • Spinoza Chair, University of Amsterdam. 1996
  • Thomas Chalmers Bronze Medal. Cochrane Collaboration Colloquium. 1999
  • Honorary Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. 2005-2012
  • Doctor of Science (Hon) University of Keele. 2014 –
  • NIHR Senior Investigator Emeritus Status. 2015 –
  • Honorary Professor, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. 2015 - 
  • National Institute of Health Research Senior Investigator Award. 2008-2011, 2012-2015
  • ACCEA, A Plus Distinction award 2003. Renewed 2007 and 2013. Gold Award 2018.
  • Fellow of the United Kingdom Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci, July 2019) 
  • Honorary Professor, University of Warwick. 2008-13, 2019 –

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Kudrna, L, Yates, J, Alidu, L, Hemming, K, Quinn, L, Schmidtke, KA, Jones, J, Al-Khudairy, L, Jolly, K, Bird, P, Campbell, N, Bharatan, I, Latuszynska, A, Currie, G & Lilford, R 2025, '', International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 22, no. 3, 398.

Fayehun, O, Apenteng, P, Umar, UAU, Adebayo, K, Owoaje, E, Sartori, J, Popoola, O, Nnabuife, U, Oladejo, A, Odubanjo, O, Ayandipo, O, Odukogbe, A-T, Irabor, D, Ijitola, J, Muhammad, A, Haruna, I, Ajiya, A, Rasheed , S, Muhammad, I, Adamou, N, Abdullahi, N, Muhammad, S, Tijjani, I, Nagwamutse, T, Abdullahi, S, Shittu, L, Ado, K, Umar, A, Bello , A, Yakasai, I, Omigbodun, A & Lilford, R 2025, '', BMC Health Services Research.

Gibbs, NK, Ochalek, J, Napit, IB, Shrestha, D, Goncalves, PS, Lilford, RJ & Sculpher, M 2025, '', PLOS One, vol. 20, no. 2, e0315944.

Apenteng, P, Nanton, V, Lobban, T & Lilford, R 2025, '', BJGP Open.

Lilford, R, Daniels, B, McPake, B, Bhutta, Z, Mash, R, Griffiths, F, Omigbodun, A, Pereira Pinto, Jr, E, Jain, R, Asiki, G, Webb, E, Scandrett, K, Chilton, P, Sartori, J, Chen, Y-F, Waiswa, P, Ezeh, A, Kyobutungi, C, Leung, GM, Machado, C, Sheikh, K, Watson, S & Das, J 2025, '', Lancet Global Health, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. E954-E966.

Lilford, RJ, Daniels, B, McPake, B, Bhutta, ZA, Mash, R, Griffiths, F, Omigbodun, A, Pereira Pinto, Jr, E, Jain, R, Asiki, G, Webb, E, Scandrett, K, Chilton, PJ, Sartori, J, Chen, Y-F, Waiswa, P, Ezeh, A, Kyobutungi, C, Leung, GM, Machado, C, Sheikh, K, Watson, SI & Das, J 2025, '', Lancet Global Health, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. e942-e953.

Weir, CJ, Hinder, S, Adamestam, I, Sharp, R, Ennis, H, Heed, A, Williams, R, Cresswell, K, Dogar, O, Pontefract, S, Coleman, J, Lilford, R, Watson, N, Slee, A, Chuter, A, Beggs, J, Slight, S, Mason, J, Bates, DW & Sheikh, A 2024, '', BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, vol. 24, 301.

Schmidtke, KA, Kudrna, L, Quinn, L, Bird, P, Hemming, K, Venable, Z & Lilford, R 2024, '', BMJ Quality & Safety.

NIHR Global Research Health Unit on Global Surgery and GlobalSurg Collaborative 2024, '', British Journal of Surgery, vol. 111, no. 6, znae129.

Quinn, L, Bird, P & Lilford, R 2024, '', BMC Health Services Research, vol. 24, 929.

Cross-Sudworth, F, Dharni, N, Kenyon, S, Lilford, R & Taylor, B 2024, '', Implementation science communications, vol. 5, 103.

Hemming, K, Kudrna, L, Watson, S, Taljaard, M, Greenfield, S, Goulao, B & Lilford, R 2024, '', BMC Medical Research Methodology, vol. 24, no. 1, 256.

Watson, SI, Ul Alam, MA, Rego, RTT, Lilford, R, Barman, AK, Alam, B, Faruque, ASG & Islam, MS 2024, '', Conflict and Health, vol. 18, 62.

Comment/debate

Lilford, R, Daniels, B, McPake, B, Bhutta, Z, Mash, R, Griffiths, F, Omigbodun, A, Pereira Pinto, Jr, E, Jain, R, Asiki, G, Webb, E, Scandrett, K, Chilton, P, Sartori, J, Chen, Y-F, Waiswa, P, Ezeh, A, Kyobutungi, C, Leung, GM, Machado, C, Sheikh, K, Watson, S & Das, J 2025, '', Lancet Global Health, vol. 13, no. 5, pp. E795-E796. <>

Review article

Napit, IB, Shrestha, D, Choudhury, S, Gkini, E, Ilozumba, O, Gill, P, Bishop, J, Neupane, K, Adhikari, A, Sartori, J, Watson, SI & Lilford, R 2024, '', PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, vol. 18, no. 5, e0012088.