Director, THIS Institute; The Health Foundation Professor of Healthcare Improvement Studies

Mary Dixon-Woods is Director of The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute (THIS Institute) and The Health Foundation Professor of Healthcare Improvement Studies in the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the University of Cambridge.

She is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and the Academy of Medical Sciences, an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal College of General Practitioners, and the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. A Professorial Fellow at Homerton College, Cambridge, Mary is also an NIHR Senior Investigator.

Mary’s programme of research is concerned with generating a high quality evidence-base to support improvement in the organisation, quality and safety of healthcare. Characteristically using mixed-methods approaches, her work focuses on evaluation of quality and safety improvement interventions and programmes, culture and behaviour in health systems, and regulation and governance of health research and care. She has a special interest in methodological innovation in the study of healthcare improvement.

Mary served on England’s National Advisory Group on the Safety of Patients in England, which produced the Berwick report in 2013. She also served on the review of information technology in the NHS led by Professor Bob Wachter, which reported in 2016. She was a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator 2012-2019. Mary was the Harveian Orator for the Royal College of Physicians in 2018, the 500th anniversary of the College’s founding. She is a member of the BMJ’s international advisory board.

Prior to her current role, Mary was RAND Professor of Health Services Research, providing research leadership to generate a high quality evidence-base to support the organisation, quality and safety of care delivered to patients. She also served as co-director of the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research (CCHSR), a collaboration between RAND Europe and the University of Cambridge; the Centre forms a collection of more than 20 researchers from a wide variety of backgrounds, brought together with the common aim of informing policy through evidence-based research on health services and systems, both in the UK and internationally. She came to these roles having been Professor of Medical Sociology at the University of Leicester, where she led research focussed on patient safety and healthcare improvement, healthcare ethics, and methodological innovation in studying healthcare.