Michael has been working in the pain field since 1980 as a clinical psychologist, educator, and researcher. Between 1988 and 1990 Michael
was the inaugural director of the inpatient pain management programme (INPUT) at St Thomas' Hospital in London. This programme was established with the support of the Kings Fund to evaluate the effectiveness of this form of pain management in the UK. The INPUT programme continues to achieve outstanding results and over the years it has received widespread international recognition. Since returning to Australia Michael joined the Pain Management and Research Centre at the Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney (with the Faculty of Medicine, University of Sydney), where he is now an Associate Professor. In 1994 Michael established the ADAPT programme at the Royal North Shore Hospital. This is based directly on the original INPUT programme in London and is achieving similar results. More recently, he has been involved in assisting the development of
similar programmes in Malaysia, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Singapore, as well as Australia. Michael has published over 120 papers in books and scientific journals, on the management of pain, and he has lectured on the field in many countries.