Professor Martin Roland is Emeritus Professor of Health Services Research at the University of Cambridge. He trained in clinical medicine at the University of Oxford, where he obtained his doctorate. Following vocational training for general practice, he worked in London and in Cambridge before moving to the Chair of General Practice in the University of Manchester in 1992. In 1994, he established and subsequently became Director of the National Primary Care Research and Development Centre.In 2009 he moved to the inaugural RAND Professorship in Health Services Research at the University of Cambridge, a post which he held until 2016 when he was succeeded by Professor Mary Dixon-Woods. Professor Roland’s main areas of research interest are developing methods of measuring quality of care, and evaluating interventions to improve care in the NHS. His previous areas of research include back pain, hospital referrals, out of hours care and skillmix in primary care. Professor Roland was a practising GP for 35 years from 1979 to 2014 and was appointed CBE in 2003 for Services to Medicine.

Please note that Professor Roland is no longer taking PhD students.

Selected Publications

Newbould J, Abel G, Ball S, Corbett J, Elliott M, Exley J, Martin A, Saunders C, Wilson E, Winpenny E, Yang M, Roland M. Evaluation of telephone first approach to demand management in English general practice: observational study. BMJ 2017; 358: j4197 link

Minchin M, Roland M, Richardson J, Rowark S, Guthrie B. Quality of care in the United Kingdom after removal of financial incentives. New England Journal of Medicine 2018; 379: 948-57 link

Llanwarne N, Newbould J, Burt J, Campbell J, Roland M. Wasting the doctor’s time? A video-elicitation interview study with patients in primary care. Social Science and Medicine 2017; 176: 113-122  link

Roland M, Guthrie B. The Quality and Outcomes Framework How did QOF come about and what have we learned? BMJ 2016; 354: i4060 link

Roland M, Olesen F. Can pay for performance be used to improve the quality of primary care? Quality and Outcomes Framework. BMJ 2016; 354: i4058 link

Roland M, Everington S. Tackling the crisis in general practice BMJ 2016; 352: i942 link

Wallace E, Smith S, Fahey T, Roland M. Reducing emergency admissions through community-based interventions. BMJ 2016; 352: h6817 link

Primary Care Workforce Commission (Roland M, chairman). The Future of Primary Care: Creating Teams for Tomorrow. 2015. link

Roland M, Campbell S. Successes and Failures of the United Kingdom’s Pay for Performance Program. New England Journal of Medicine 2014; 370:1944-1949 link

Roberts M, Campbell J, Abel G, Davey A, Elmore N, Maramba I, Carter M, Elliott M, Roland M, Burt J. Understanding high and low patient experience scores in primary care: analysis of patients’ survey data for general practices and individual doctors BMJ 2014;349:g6034 link

Kristensen SR, Meacock R, Turner AJ, Boaden R, McDonald R, Roland M, Sutton M. Long-term effect of hospital pay for performance on mortality in England. New England Journal of Medicine 2014; 371(6): 540-8 link

Campbell SM, Reeves D, Kontopantelis E, Sibbald B, Roland M. Effects of pay-for-performance on the quality of primary care in England. New England Journal of Medicine 2009; 361: 368-78. link