Dr Nebil Achour

Nebil has expertise in the resilience of healthcare to major hazards, about which he published over 50 scientific articles and reports, and was a member of the global WHO Hospital Safety Index revision panel.

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Background

Over 20 years-experience in Disaster Mitigation with particular focus on healthcare. Dr Achour’s background is in Engineering. He received his first degree from the Tunis Advanced School of Science and Technology, Tunisia, Dr Achour worked in private engineering and design firms on designing structures and training engineers in several countries. Granted a Japanese Government Scholarship to further his education, he gained his MSc with a focus on the response of hospital lifeline systems following seismic activities and his PhD on hospital’s fragility assessment in 2004 and 2007 respectively from Kanazawa University.

Following his graduation, he was employed as a Post-doctoral Researcher in his graduate University. He joined Loughborough University in September 2007 as a Research Associate. He coordinated the research activities of the £11million HaCIRIC research centre, and the CPM WBDL MSc Course. He was awarded the Best Paper Award during the CIB World Congress 2010, and the Highly Commended Paper in the 2016 and 2015 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence. Nebil is actively involved in national and international research and consultancy activities and interested in exchanging knowledge with academics and practitioners, specifically those working on similar topics.

Research interests

• Innovation and modernization of healthcare emergency planning
• Disaster mitigation
• Global challenge and healthcare resilience
• Healthcare system interconnectivity
• Public health and disaster prevention
• Healthcare and system dynamics
• International best practice

Areas of research supervision

• Disaster-associated staff redeployment
• Advanced technologies for disaster mitigation
• Leadership and service development
• Hospital staff resilience
• Ambulance service resilience 

Teaching

• Healthcare Management (MSc Distance Learning)

Qualifications

• PhD in Disaster Mitigation Engineering, Kanazawa University (Japan) Abstract DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe.2011.43502caa.002 and thesis can be accessed at http://hdl.handle.net/2297/3747
• MSc in Disaster Mitigation Engineering, Kanazawa University (Japan)
• BSc (Hons) in Civil Engineering, University of Tunis II (Tunisia)
• Qualification in Team Leadership, Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM)
• PG Certificate in Higher Education, Anglia Ruskin University (UK)

Memberships, editorial boards

• Member of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute (EERI), California
• Associate Editor of the Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness (DMPHP), Cambridge University Press
• Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of the Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE), Emerald
• Member of the TRC Journal of Medicine, Turkish Red Crescent
• Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
• Member of the Committee of Scientific Directors of the CIB World Building Congress 2016 (2015-2016)
• Reviewer for over 15 international journals

Member of the scientific committees of:

• CIB World Building Congress 2016 (WBC16), 30 May-3 June 2016, Finland
• International Conference on Advances in Civil & Environmental Engineering (ACEE), 28-30 July, 2015, Malaysia
• 5th International Conference on Building Resilience, 15-17 July, 2015, New Zealand
• 4th International Conference on Building Resilience, 8-11 September, 2014, UK
• 3rd International Conference on Disaster Resilience, 11-15 February, 2013, Sri Lanka

Research grants, consultancy, knowledge exchange

National and international esteem

• Chair of the Healthcare Resilience to Major Disasters: Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic international webinar, Anglia Ruskin University, 2021. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.25411/aru.16644640
• Keynote Speaker. Reshaping Healthcare Disaster Resilience through innovative use of Intelligent Environment. International Workshop on Intelligent Environments Supporting Healthcare and Well-being (WISHWell 2019), Intelligent Environment Conference, The 15th International Conference on Intelligent Environments (IE’19), June 2019, Morocco http://www.eis.mdx.ac.uk/events/wishwell/?page_id=230
• Guest Speaker. Healthcare performance and resilience: redesigning the system? Frontiers of Development Symposium: Inclusive Prosperity and Wellbeing in the Context of Mass Displacement, Royal Engineering Academy (RAEng) and Medical Science Academy. February 2018, Kigali, Rwanda
• Guest Lecture. Enhancing the sustainability and resilience of healthcare infrastructure, Department of Civil Engineering, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember. April 2017. Surabaya, Indonesia
• Chair of the Preparedness (Theme 4) technical session as part of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience, Huddersfield University and the Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC), November 2017, Bangkok, Thailand
• Co-Chair of the Int. Scientific Committee, CIB World Building Congress 2016
• External PhD Examiner in Coventry (UK), De Montfort (UK), Salford (UK) and New South Wales (Australia) Universities
• Co-Chair of the ‘Planning for more resilient healthcare in emergencies under increasing risks and decreasing budgets’ international workshop, Loughborough University, 2011, UK. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe.2011.43502caa.004
• Invited Speaker at ‘A Healthy Climate: The Implications of climate change for health and adapting healthcare services’ workshop, Nottingham Conference Centre, Nottingham, 2011, UK
• Keynote Speaker at the ‘Memorial International Symposium on Earthquake Engineering in Retirement of Professor M Kitaura’, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, 2009, Japan
• Invited Author - Contributed with an article ‘Healthcare Resilience: What’s missing?’ to the Asian Disaster and Preparedness Centre (ADPC) Newsletter, Bangkok, 2008, Thailand

Consultancy

• Member of the International Expert Panel to develop a Curriculum for Hospital Emergency Response Plan for European hospitals, World Health Organisation (WHO) Europe, Denmark (2020)
• Member of the Global Expert Consultation on Revision of the Hospital Safety Index, WHO (2012-2015)
• Member of International Post-earthquake Investigation Team to Ercis and Van (Turkey). Team included members from Italy, Japan, Turkey and UK, Van, 2011, Turkey
• Member of International Advisory Panel to develop ‘A Curriculum Framework for Public Health Risk Management’, WHO East Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO), Amman, 2013, Jordan
• Member of International Advisory Panel to develop and of ‘A Protocol for Health Emergency Risk Assessment’, WHO East Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO), Amman, 2013, Jordan

Selected recent publications

Book chapters and Editorial/Special Issues

Achour, N. (2017) “Healthcare Disaster Risk Reduction and Management”, Handbook of Disaster Risk Reduction and Management, in Madu, C N and Kuei, C H (Eds), World Scientific Press and Imperial College Press, London. ISBN 978-981-3207-94-3

Achour, N and Kähkönen, K.E.E. (Eds) (2017) "Disaster resilience: Building the Jigsaw", International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment, 8(3), DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/IJDRBE-04-2017-0029

Achour, N. (Eds) (2016) “Advancing products and services”, Proceedings of the CIB World Building Congress 2016, Volume V. Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland. ISBN: 978-952-15-3745-5. Accessible from: https://tutcris.tut.fi/portal/files/6187048/WBC16_Vol_5.pdf

Achour, N. and Price, A.D.F. (Eds). (2011) “Optimising healthcare facilities performance in natural hazards”. International Journal of Disaster Resilience in the Built Environment (IJDRBE), 2(3), 196-199. ISSN:1759-5908. Accessible from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/toc/ijdrbe/2/3

Journal publications

Achour, N.; Elhaj, H and Ali, A (2022), “Hospital resilience to extreme events: a staff attendance perspective”, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction. [Under review]

Ballantyne, H and Achour (2022). The Challenges of Nurse Redeployment and Opportunities for Leadership during COVID-19 Pandemic. Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.[Under review]

Prosser, K and Achour, N. (2022). A cross-sectional comparative study: Job satisfaction for orthotists employed by NHS and the private sector, British Journal of Healthcare Management. [In press]

Ali, A and Achour, N (2022), “Healthcare resilience to extreme events: A hospital staff perspective”, Turkish Red Crescent Journal of Medicine. [In press]

Conferences

Achour, N, Munokaran, S, Barker, F and Soetanto, R (2017), Staff Stress: The Sleeping Cell of Healthcare Failure, Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Building Resilience: Using scientific knowledge to inform policy and practice in disaster risk reduction, November 2017, Bangkok, Thailand

Achour, N., Pantzartzis, E., Pascale, F., Price, A.D.F. (2012), Opportunities associated with the integration of environmental and resilience appraisal tools, Japan-UK Joint workshop on Policy Integration between Environmental Assessment and Disaster Management 30 November – 3 December 2012, Ichikawa, Japan Accessible from: http://www.nishikiz.depe.titech.ac.jp/JPUK2012/Proceedings_of_the_JP-UK_joint_WS.pdf

Pascale, F., Achour, N., Price, A.D.F. and Polverino, F. (2012), Evaluation, analysis and benchmarking of the Design of Emergency Departments in Italy, Proceedings of the HaCIRIC International Conference: Transforming Healthcare Infrastructure and Services in an Age of Austerity, 19-21 September, Cardiff

Pascale, F., Achour, N., Price, A.D.F. and Polverino, F. (2012), Design Evaluation of Emergency Departments: Lessons learned from international case studies, Proceedings of the Emergency Department: Considerations for Innovation and Strategic Design Workshop, 28-29 June, Washington DC

Reports and professional journals

Achour, N. (2020) “Bracing healthcare facilities for impact of pandemics”, Health Estate Journal. July 2020, pp.19-22

Achour, N (2015), A ‘disaster prevention’ approach advocated, Health Estate, 69(6) 29-32. Accessible from: http://www.healthestatejournal.com/story/14477/a-disaster-prevention-approach-advocated

Achour, N (2015), “Reconnaissance report: Water supply failure incident in Library on 22nd December 2014”, March 2015, Loughborough University, UK

Achour, N (2014), “Report on the Reliability and Resilience of the Department of Chemistry systems and installations”, March 2014, Loughborough University, UK