Bio: Kieran Walshe, a 2000-01 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is a senior research fellow at the Health Services Management Centre at the University of Birmingham. His research interests concern quality and performance in health care. He chairs the Royal Society of Medicine's Forum on Quality in Health Care, is on the editorial boards of Quality in Health Care and the International Journal of Quality in Health Care, and has acted as an advisor to the National Audit Office and the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry. Before undertaking his current career as a researcher and academic about 12 years ago, he was a health care manager. Walshe's Harkness Fellowship is based at the University of California, Berkeley, where he is comparing U.S. and New Zealand strategies to reduce disparities in health outcomes for minorities.
Placement: University of California
Mentors: Stephen Shortell, Ph.D., M.P.H., M.B.A.
Project: A Prescription for Improvement? The Impact of Regulation on the Performance of Health Care Organizations
Description: Walshe conducted an exploratory study on the development and use of regulation in U.S. health care, and its impact on the performance of health care organizations. He conducted a comprehensive review of the literature on health care regulation, and a selective review of the literature on regulation in other settings. He then interviewed people involved in health care regulation, including from health care organizations and regulatory agencies, and analyzed documents (e.g., annual reports) from organizations included in the study.