Areas of Expertise

Professor Polkey is experienced in managing all respiratory conditions, with specialist expertise in the following areas:

• COPD
• Sleep
• Snoring
• Home ventilation
• General respiratory medicine

About Professor Michael Polkey

Professor Polkey is a chest physician with 25 years of experience.  His NHS base is the Royal Brompton Hospital in London where he chairs the lung failure team, which deal with sleep and home ventilation.  The Royal Brompton Hospital is a National centre of excellence for patients with lung disease in the UK.  He is expert with all aspects of advanced lung disease which result in respiratory failure.  He is particularly expert in sleep disorders, the management of chronic respiratory failure, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease and respiratory aspects of neurological disease such as ALS.

In addition, since 2016 he has also been the Chest Physician for the Isle of Skye and Lochaber, a commitment to which he devotes 20% of his time and where is practice is very general and extends to all aspects of respiratory medicine.

He is Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College and has published almost 300 peer reviewed scientific articles. Professor Polkey was elected a Foundation Fellow of the European Respiratory Society in 2014 and awarded the Gold medal of the ERS for his research in COPD in 2018.

Research Highlights

Key Publications

• Nici L, Mammen MJ, Charbek E, Alexander PE, Au DH, Boyd CM, Criner GJ, Donaldson GC, Dreher M, Fan VS, Gershon AS, Han MK, Krishnan JA, Martinez FJ, Meek PM, Morgan M, Polkey MI, Puhan MA, Sadatsafavi M, Sin DD, Washko GR, Wedzicha JA, Aaron SD; American Thoracic Society Assembly on Clinical Problems.  Pharmacologic Management of COPD: An Official American Thoracic Society Clinical Practice Guideline.  Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2020. 2020 Sep 15;202(6):910 (https://www.atsjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1164/rccm.202003-0625ST)
• Mebrate Y, Phillips S, Field D, Mumuni I, Josse P, Alexander D, Das Gupta R, Trimlett R & Polkey MI, Modification of a domiciliary ventilator to increase FiO2; an off label modification which may be of value in COVID-19.  Thorax 2021 Jan;76(1):83-85 (https://thorax.bmj.com/content/thoraxjnl/76/1/83.full.pdf?with-ds=yes)
• Polkey MI, Praestgaard J, Berwick A, Franssen FME, Singh D, Steiner MC, Casaburi R, Tillmann HC, Lach-Trifilieff E, Roubenoff R, Rooks DS. Activin Type II Receptor Blockade for Treatment of Muscle Depletion in COPD: A Randomized Trial.  Am J Respir Crit Care Med.  2019;199:313-320
• Polkey MI, Qiu Z-H, Zhou L, Zhu M-D, Wu Y-X, Chen Y-Y, Ye S-P, He Y-S, Jiang M, He B-T, Mehta B, Zhong N-S & Luo YM.  Tai-Chi and pulmonary rehabilitation compared for treatment-naïve patients with COPD; A Randomized Controlled Trial.  Chest 2018 153(5):1116-1124
• Polkey MI, Lyall RA, Yang K, Johnson E, Leigh PN & Moxham J.  Respiratory Muscle Strength as Predictive Biomarker for Survival in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.  Am J Respir Crit Care Med.  2017; 195:86-95
• Luo YM, He BT, Wu YX, Yuan H, Xu J, Moxham J, Polkey MI. Neural Respiratory Drive and Ventilation in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease during Sleep.  Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2014;190:227-9
• Shaikh ZF, Kelly JL, Shrikrishna D, de Villa M, Mullen MJ, Hopkinson NS, MJ Morrell & Polkey MI.  Patent foramen ovale is not associated with hypoxemia in severe COPD and does not impair exercise performance.  AJRCCM  2014; 189: 540-7