THIS Institute 2026 annual lecture: Can improvement and innovation save the NHS? by Professor Mary Dixon-Woods

Summary

In THIS Institute’s 2026 Annual Lecture, Mary Dixon-Woods explores whether improvement and innovation can help save the NHS, and what it will take to turn ambition into meaningful, system-wide reform.

While acknowledging the scale and persistence of the problems facing the NHS, Mary argues that meaningful reform remains possible if efforts are grounded in evidence, collaboration and system-wide coordination. The lecture examines the current fragmented approach to innovation and improvement and warned that the enthusiasm to adopt digital technologies and AI often outpaces proper testing, implementation planning and evaluation.

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