Lord Roger Swinfen MBE

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of one of our Co-founders, Director, Trustee and past Chairman, Lord Roger Swinfen. Born in London on 14 December 1938, he was educated at Westminster School before joining the RMA Sandhurst as an officer cadet, graduating in 1958 and serving in The Royal Scots (The Royal Regiment). Roger served in the Army until December 1962. During this time, he met his wife, Patricia.  Roger and Pat married in 1962 and after re-training as a Chartered Surveyor, moved to East Kent, where he and Pat brought up their family of four children. In 1977 Roger made his maiden speech in the House of Lords; his subject was the use of Television for educational and medical purposes – a small precursor to his future role in Telemedicine. From 1977 onwards Roger played an active role in Parliament, considering it to be both a privilege and a duty.

In 1982 Roger began working for John Grooms Association for the Disabled and his focus shifted full time to helping people with disabilities both in the UK and abroad. He worked within parliament to improve legislation for anyone seriously ill or with a disability. In January 1992 Roger and Pat visited Bangladesh on the invitation of the British High Commissioner to look at how the UK could help those with disabilities within the country. Pat, with her nursing training, was able with Roger to work proactively with the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed in Dhaka (CRP), including finding a specialist British nurse with spinal cord injury training able to join the staff and improve the standard of patient care under the wonderful guidance of CRP’s founder Valerie Taylor OBE.

In 1995 the Swinfens met Professor Richard Wootton, a leading authority in Telemedicine and Telecare. Richard visited CRP with the Swinfens and in 1998 he suggested that it was an ideal place to set up a pilot study of a telemedical link between a remote hospital in the developing world and a group of consultants working in the UK.  The Swinfen Charitable Trust was established formally in late 1998 as a registered British charity. In November the same year Roger gave the opening address at the 6th World Conference on Telemedicine at the Royal Society of Medicine, and met Lt Colonel David Vassallo RAMC, who explained that he had set up a Telemedicine system for the Defence Medical Services, using Army specialists based out of the Royal Hospital at Haslar. David invited Roger and Pat to use his system and see if it could work elsewhere. In 1999 Professor Jim Ryan, ex RAMC, a specialist in post conflict recovery, asked if the charity could work with Pristina Hospital, Kosovo -  and so the charity began to gradually establish itself. Pat and Roger were then appointed to serve on the Catastrophes and Conflicts Forum of the Royal Society of Medicine.

In the beginning, the network was based on a simple emailing system between the referring healthcare professionals and the consulting physicians, it quickly evolved into a web-based messaging system with a private secure centralized platform, designed by Sankalpa Ghose and the Swinfens to remain as simple as possible in order for those without English as their first language, to be able to use it confidently. It has developed into a Platform serving, at present, 418 Referring health providers in 96 countries – with more than 500 specialist Consultants from across the world, (mainly in the UK, America and Australia). In 2014, HRH The Princess Royal agreed to become the Charity’s Patron, having witnessed the First Telemedical Link at CRP. From 1998 until his death, Roger and Pat have worked tirelessly to help anyone in need. Their achievement is remarkable and with the establishment of the charity Roger leaves a lasting legacy that will endure across the world. Roger Swinfen had a keen sense of duty and purpose and was highly respected for his contribution to humanitarian outreach. A true life of service to others. We shall miss him hugely.

A Service of Thanksgiving will be held on a date to be announced.  If you wish to make a donation in Roger’s memory, please use the Donate link https://www.swinfentelemed.org/