Elizabeth Murray (8 February 1960 – 7 April 2023) was a British general practitioner and professor of e-health and primary care at

University College London University College London (Trade name, branded as UCL) is a Public university, public research university in London, England. It is a Member institutions of the University of London, member institution of the Federal university, federal Uni ...

. In 2003 she established the eHealth Unit at UCL where she was co-director, and she was also Deputy Director of the UCL Institute of Healthcare Engineering.

Education

Murray graduated with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in Physiological Sciences from St Hilda's College, Oxford in 1981, followed by an MSc in

Clinical Medicine Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for patients, managing the Medical diagnosis, diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, ...

from

Wolfson College, Oxford Wolfson College () is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Wolfson is an all-graduate college, it prides itself on being one of the most international colleges at Oxford, with part ...

in 1982. In 2001 Murray was awarded a

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

Medical Education Medical education is vocational education, education related to the practice of being a medical practitioner, including the initial training to become a physician (i.e., medical school and internship (medical), internship) and additional trainin ...

from the

University of Maastricht A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Uni ...

Career and research

Murray's research focused on the use of digital health to improve health and health care. She had a specific focus on the development, evaluation and implementation of digital health interventions. Murray's research was highly interdisciplinary, and involved collaboration with human computer interaction and computer scientists, biomedical and health service research methods. In 2001, Murray was awarded a

Harkness Fellowship The Harkness Fellowship (previously known as the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship) is a program run by the Commonwealth Fund of New York City. This fellowship was established to reciprocate the Rhodes Scholarships and enable Fellows from several co ...

Health Care Policy Health policy can be defined as the "decisions, plans, and actions that are undertaken to achieve specific healthcare goals within a society".World Health Organization''Health Policy'' accessed 22 March 2011(archived 5 February 2011) According ...

at the

University of California, San Francisco The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in San Francisco, California, United States. It is part of the University of California system and is dedic ...

. On her return to the UK, Murray was awarded a Department of Health Career Scientist Award (2002–2007). In 2003, Murray set up the UCL eHealth Unit focused on multidisciplinary research in eHealth. With colleagues at the eHealth Unit, Murray set up a not-for-profit Community Interest Company, HeLP Digital, to disseminate evidence-based digital health interventions developed at UCL across the NHS and internationally. Through HeLP Digital, Murray developed a programme to help people with Type 2 diabetes by providing evidence-based information and support online (HeLP-Diabetes), with funding by the

NIHR The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the British government's major funder of clinical, public health, social care and translational research. With a budget of over £1.2 billion in 2020–21, its mission is to "improv ...

NHS England NHS England, formally the NHS Commissioning Board for England, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning si ...

announced it will be rolling out the HeLP-Diabetes programme nationally in 2020, following trials across 11 areas of the UK. Murray was a member of the Steering Group for

Public Health England Public Health England (PHE) was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England which began operating on 1 April 2013 to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. Its formation came as a ...

workstream on evaluation of digital health interventions, a member of the NHSE Diabetes Programme Board, and a member of the Public Health England Behavioural Science Advisory Board.

Personal life and death

In 2018, Murray entered into a civil partnership with Debby Lennard, a senior civil servant. Murray was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2022, and died on 7 April 2023, at the age of 63. She was survived by her partner, Debby.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Murray, Elizabeth 1960 births 2023 deaths Deaths from breast cancer British general practitioners British women medical researchers Alumni of St Hilda's College, Oxford 21st-century British medical doctors 21st-century British women medical doctors Alumni of Wolfson College, Oxford Maastricht University alumni British expatriates in the Netherlands Fellows of the Royal College of General Practitioners Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians Fellows of the Higher Education Academy Academics of University College London