Mary Dixon-Woods
Professor Mary Dixon-Woods is a Irish academic in the field of Public Health. She is RAND Professor of Health Services Research and Health Foundation Professor of Healthcare Improvement Studies at the University of Cambridge. She is also Director of The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute (THIS Institute), and a Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge.[1]
Early life and education
Professor Dixon-Woods has described how she was "very lucky to attend a very forward-thinking secondary school in the middle of Ireland: it was so far ahead of the game that is introduced computers to the curriculum in 1979, and insisted that girls could do anything they put their minds to - at a time when many schools limited girls' ambitions."[2]
After leaving school Dixon-Woods worked for a year as a library assistant in a very socially deprived area of Dublin.[2] She spent four years works as a civil servant, working on energy policy including safety and security of energy supply, as well as working on developing education software.
Dixon-Woods then studied for a postgraduate MSc in Social Research and Social Policy followed by a DPhil in Social Studies at the University of Oxford: she has stated that it was during this period she was inspired to work in Health.[2]
Career
Professor Dixon woods is a fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, as well as the Academy of Medical Sciences. As Co-Director of the Cambridge Centre for Health Services Research, she leads research aimed at improving patient safety and healthcare improvement, healthcare ethics, and methodological innovation in healthcare studies.[1]
She also acts as Deputy Editor-in-Chief of healthcare journal BMJ Quality and Safety.[3]
Dixon-Woods also holds roles as an honorary professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine at Johns Hopkins University, as well as bring a visiting professor at the University of Leicester, and a visiting adjunct professor at Dartmouth College.
For 20 years she was Professor of Medical Sociology and Director of the SAPPHIRE group in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Leicester.[4]
In 2012 she became one of the first recipients of a Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator Award to study 'Ethics of Patient Safety and Quality in Healthcare'.[5]
Professor Dixon Woods served on the 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.[6]
In 2016 Mary was appointed the RAND Professor of Health Services Research in the Centre for Health Services Research at University of Cambridge.[2] Since 2017 Mary Dixon-Woods has been a Fellow of Homerton College, Cambridge.[6]
THIS Institute
In 2017 Professor Dixon-Woods was awarded a grant worth £40m over 10 years from the Health Foundation to establish and run a new institute designed to work towards strengthening the evidence-base for ways to improve healthcare.[7] This was the single largest grant awarded by the charity to date.[7] Professor Dixon-Woods stated at the time:
"The NHS, like health systems around the world, is faced with pressing challenges of quality and safety. Yet the science of how to make improvements has remained under-developed. This funding is a tremendous opportunity to produce new knowledge about how to improve care, experience and outcomes for patients. Together with our partners, the University of Cambridge is hugely excited at the chance to work with NHS staff, patients and carers to identify, design and text improvements."[7]
THIS Institute is the first organisation of its kind in Europe.[8]
In August 2018 Professor Dixon-Woods was appointed Health Foundation Professor of Healthcare Improvement Studies at University of Cambridge, a position funded in part by THIS Institute's Health Foundation grant. Of her new appointment she said: "I'm thrilled to have been appointed to this position. It is a very fitting recognition of the highly productive partnership between THIS Institute and the Health Foundation as we deliver our mission: to create an unparalleled scientific asset for the NHS by strengthening the evidence base for improving the quality and safety of healthcare."[9]
References
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- ^ a b "Professor Mary Dixon-Woods, Director - THIS Institute". THIS Institute - The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
- ^ a b c d "Mary Dixon-Woods talks about her career pathway". Primary Care Unit. 2016-05-23. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
- ^ "Editorial Board". BMJ Quality & Safety. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
- ^ aj157. "Professor Mary Dixon-Woods — University of Leicester". www2.le.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-02-18.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Outstanding scholars receive inaugural Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards in Medical Humanities | Wellcome". wellcome.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
- ^ a b "Mary Dixon-Woods | Homerton College". www.homerton.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
- ^ a b c "Cambridge awarded £40m to create world-leading health care improvement research institute". University of Cambridge. 2017-03-28. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
- ^ "Cambridge awarded £40m to create world-leading health care improvement research institute". University of Cambridge. 2017-03-28. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
- ^ "Mary Dixon-Woods appointed Health Foundation Professor of Healthcare Improvement Studies". THIS Institute - The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute. 2018-08-06. Retrieved 2019-02-15.