Michael Kidd AO

Michael Kidd holds a joint appointment as Professor of Global Primary Care and Future Health Systems at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, and as the inaugural Director of the Centre for Future Health Systems based at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

Like many academic general practitioners, his research interests are broad, and include a focus on global health, primary care, digital health, mental health, health policy, the education of health professionals, safety and quality in primary care, the primary care management of HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmissible infections, and the role of case reports in contemporary health care. He is the author of over 250 peer-reviewed publications and 20 books.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, he served as the Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Australia and was the public face of the nation’s primary care response, working with the Australian government, the Minister for Health, and stakeholders on key initiatives including the rapid implementation of whole of population telehealth measures. He also held appointment as the Foundation Professor of Primary Care Reform at the Australian National University in Canberra and, throughout the pandemic, led a team of action researchers documenting the development and implementation of the nation’s primary care response to COVID-19 and carrying out rapid research reviews to inform national policy developments.

Prior to returning to Australia at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, he was based in Canada where he was the Foundation Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Care, Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, and Senior Innovation Fellow with the Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care. Prior to this, he was the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University from 2009 to 2016, and Professor and Chair of the Department of General Practice at the University of Sydney from 1996 to 2008.

He is an elected fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and has served as a member of the Council of the Australian Government’s National Health and Medical Research Council. He is also an Honorary Professorial Fellow in General Practice at the University of Melbourne, Honorary Professor of Global Primary Care at Flinders University, Adjunct Professor with the Department of Family and Community Medicine at The University of Toronto, and Professorial Fellow with the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne.

He served two terms as the elected President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, from 2002 to 2006, and was President of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA) from 2013 to 2016. 

He is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and has served as a director on more than 20 company boards over the past 25 years in the commercial, professional and not for profit sectors, and as chair or member of many government advisory committees and boards. 

He has served as a consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO), World Bank, OECD and UNAIDS, most recently reviewing for the WHO primary care reforms in Saudi Arabia and Oman, medical education reforms in Iran, the development of postgraduate family medicine training in Indonesia, developments in the training of primary health care professionals in Cambodia, China, Laos and Vietnam, the development of family practice in the countries of North Africa and the Middle East, and the introduction of family medicine in Mauritius.  

Since 2020, he has been a member of the international technical advisory committee for the PaRIS (Patient-Reported Indicator Surveys) program of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and in 2023, was appointed as a member of the International Expert Group for the OECD International Survey of People Living with Chronic Conditions. In 2021, he was appointed as the chair of the Wellcome Trust Committee on PhD Programmes for Health Professionals.  In 2023 he was appointed as a member of Commonwealth Fund International Research Advisory Committee, and as the Chair of the Australian Harkness Fellowship Selection Committee. In 2023, he was appointed to the World Medical Association workgroup on pandemic and epidemic preparedness. From 2006 to 2016, he was a member of the International Research Advisory Board of the United Kingdom Biobank Research Project based at Oxford University. 

For his services to global primary care, he has been awarded honorary fellowship of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators, the Royal College of General Practitioners (United Kingdom), the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners, the Hong Kong College of Family Physicians, the Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia, the College of General Practitioners of Sri Lanka, and the Bangladesh Academy of Family Physicians, life membership of the General Practitioners’ Association of Nepal, membership of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, and honorary membership of the World Psychiatric Association, the Romanian National Society of Family Medicine, the Slovak Society of General Practice Medicine, and the Armenian Psychiatric Association. In 2007, he received the Australian Medical Association Award for Excellence in Health Care in recognition of his contributions to primary care, medical education and the health care of disadvantaged people in Australia. In 2014, he was awarded the Rose Hunt Medal, the highest award of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners for services to Australian general practice.

In the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in 2009, he was appointed as a Member of the Order of Australia for service to medicine and education, and was promoted to Officer of the Order of Australia in the King’s Birthday Honours List in 2023.