Associate Professor of Health Communication, University of Lugano; Switzerland

Annegret F. Hannawa (Ph.D.) is Associate Professor of Health Communication at Faculty of Communication Sciences at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI) in Switzerland, where she directs a Center for the Advancement of Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety (CAHQS, www.patientsafetycenter.org). She also serves as Associate Faculty at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health (USA) and as Research Fellow at Cardiff University’s School of Medicine (UK). Since 2013, Professor Hannawa has presided the ISCOME Global Center for the Advancement of Communication in Healthcare (www.iscome.org), which facilitates interdisciplinary research collaborations between communication science and healthcare for improved safety and quality of care. Her innovative research approach has been recognized with numerous academic awards. Most recently, she received a competitive book prize by the U.S.

National Communication Association for her co-edited title “Communication Competence” (2015) and an internationally renowned “Jozien Bensing Research Award” (2016) for her outstanding career achievements and impact. Last year, Professor Hannawa published a new groundbreaking book entitled “New horizons for patient safety: Understanding communication” (2017), in which she introduces five evidence-based core competencies for “safe communication” in healthcare.

Professor Hannawa’s empirical research has also appeared in a variety of distinguished international journals.