Derek is the Director of the NIHR CLAHRC for Northwest London. He was appointed as the first Professor of Acute Medicine in the UK as part of Imperial College London and as the inaugural President of the Society for Acute Medicine Derek has been involved with in developing Acute Medicine.

He graduated from Edinburgh University in 1980 and was a Lecturer in the Department of Medicine and obtained his MD on the inflammatory response to myocardial infarction. He initially specialised in Chest and General Medicine before moving to Edinburgh as a Consultant in Acute Medicine and Chest Medicine.

Derek was Associate Medical Director for Lothian Acute Hospitals prior to taking up a post at Imperial College and directly involved in a number of large national change programmes including the Emergency Services Collaborative with the Modernisation Agency.

Derek is currently on several National Committees and is an elected member of council for the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh. His academic research interests relate to quality and organisation of care, particularly acute medical care, and in the methods of delivery of care. Clinically his interests are illness severity assessment, pulmonary embolism and pneumonia.