Rate My Professor Richard Douglas

Professor Richard Douglas is a Professor of Surgery in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Auckland, serving as Head of the Department of Surgery within the School of Medicine. He holds the Garnett Passe Chair in Otorhinolaryngology and works as a consultant ORL surgeon at Auckland City Hospital and Gillies Hospital, while maintaining a private practice at Mauranui Clinic in Epsom. Douglas graduated with MBChB from the University of Auckland in 1986, passed the MRCP exams in the UK, completed FRACP training in Auckland, and undertook specialist training in ORL, including a rhinology and skull base fellowship in Adelaide in 2005. Earlier in his career, he trained and practiced as a clinical immunologist and allergist at Auckland Hospital, where he served as Clinical Director of the Clinical Immunology and Allergy Service for three years.

His research focuses on the role of bacteria and the microbiome in chronic rhinosinusitis pathogenesis, interactions between local immunity in the nasal and sinus mucosa and microbes, and strategies to improve healing after sinus surgery. Leading the Douglas Research Group, he conducts laboratory studies and clinical trials in collaboration with researchers at the University of Auckland's School of Biological Sciences and School of Medicine, as well as international partners in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Douglas has authored over 180 peer-reviewed publications and several book chapters. He has secured multiple grants from the Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation, including Conjoint Grants in 2017, 2018, and 2024 for projects on CRS microbiome analysis, antibiotic efficacy, and antimicrobial resistance, along with a 2020 Special Project Grant for the MACRO Programme and recent Auckland Medical Research Foundation funding for respiratory tract microbiota in cystic fibrosis. Additionally, he funded the Tarāpunga mobile ENT clinic to provide ear, nose, and throat services to remote areas of Northland, addressing access disparities inspired by historical Māori battalion doctor Sir Patrick Eisdell Moore.