Elizabeth Murray

Abstract

General practitioner and pioneer in e-health. She was born in London, UK, on Feb 8, 1960 and died of breast cancer in Battle, UK, on April 7, 2023 aged 63 years. Elizabeth Murray's influential career in general practice began in 1991 and coincided with her first academic appointment as a lecturer in primary care at University College London (UCL), UK. “She found that the two jobs worked very well together”, says Fiona Stevenson, Professor of Medical Sociology at UCL and now Director of the innovative e-Health Unit that Murray set up in 2003. Murray's interest in digital health, like her earlier work on community-based teaching for medical students, was rooted in a determination to serve her patients. “Everything she did needed to have a relevance to the people she saw when she was in the surgery”, says Stuart Linke, an NHS consultant clinical psychologist and Associate Research Fellow in the e-Health Unit. “If it couldn’t be useful to them she wasn’t interested.” And she firmly believed that digital health, a preoccupation of hers since the early 1990s, had much to offer patients. General practice was not at the forefront of Murray's mind when she graduated from Oxford University, UK, and the then London Hospital Medical College with degrees in physiological sciences in 1981 and medicine in 1985. Having also completed a master's in reproductive endocrinology at Oxford University, Murray was initially drawn to obstetrics and gynaecology but took up a general practice traineeship at a north London health centre. 2 years later, attracted by the prospect of combining primary care with research, she moved to another London practice where her clinical work fitted with the academic post at UCL. Murray's early UCL work was in education. “Her aim was to develop community-based teaching”, says Stevenson. “She was part of the group pushing forward on the value of teaching in general practice as well as hospitals.” Her efforts showed that this endeavour was feasible, and helped to lay the foundations for its subsequent adoption by other medical schools. “But it proved to be a hard-fought battle”, Stevenson adds. “Elizabeth was always keen to develop methodologies that were innovative”, says Linke. One early development was in online research projects, where everything was done by emailed questionnaires. Murray also managed to combine her interest in digital health with her enthusiasm for greater patient involvement in decision making. As Stevenson explains: “She felt we needed to do more than just provide information. We needed to start engaging patients more…to develop websites and apps that allow people to interact. Just providing information doesn’t automatically change behaviour.” Murray also valued multidisciplinary approaches and with the help of colleagues, including psychologists, sociologists, and behavioural scientists, she developed a computerised system for helping patients make choices in the use of hormone replacement therapy and the management of benign prostatic hypertrophy. Her starting point was always to find out what people wanted from the services set up to provide this help. “People don’t want just to read about things, they want to share in looking after their own health”, says Stevenson. Even more ambitious was Murray's creation of HeLP-Diabetes, a web-based self-management programme for people with type 2 diabetes. Research that she and her colleagues did not only showed that it improved outcomes and could be implemented in general practice, but that it also reduced costs. “NHS England took it on and offered it across the NHS”, says Stevenson. The success of this project paved the way for a subsequent scheme designed to support the rehabilitation of people with long COVID. In addition to successfully directing UCL's e-Health Unit, Murray was made Professor of e-Health and Primary Care in 2013. From 2015 to 2018 she also headed what is now UCL's Research Department of Primary Care and Population Health. Murray was accomplished in meeting the demands of her various roles. “She had a quick intelligence. She could instantly see what was needed”, says Linke. “Her questions were always sharp and perceptive.” Stevenson talks of Murray's tenacity and focus. “Everybody's expertise was valued. It didn’t matter who you were in the team….and she had a clear vision that she shared with people.” As Linke recalls, people always wanted to work with Murray. “The learning that you got from one bit of work she would then use elsewhere…You always had a sense that you were working on a bigger project than just yours.” Murray leaves a partner, Debbie Lennard, and a brother, Mark Jones.