Head of Improvement, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust; England

Karen is the Head of Improvement for the Royal Free Hospital in London. Her role involves supporting and leading improvement projects and programmes, advising teams on QI methodology, teaching improvement methodology and also encouraging patient involvement. She is passionate about asking, listening and doing ‘what matters’ for both staff and patients and has developed a site wide approach to staff wellbeing by operationalising the ‘what matters to you’ conversation.

Karen qualified as a physiotherapist in 1996 and worked in different acute trusts and community settings before she specialised in Oncology and Palliative Care. She worked at the Royal Free for 17 years as a physiotherapist before taking this Improvement role in October 2019.

Karen became interested in the world of Quality Improvement during a year as a Florence Nightingale Leadership Scholar in 2017 and had the opportunity to attend the London IHI forum where she first heard about the ‘what matters to you’ movement.

Karen has published original research in the area of Cancer Rehabilitation and ‘what matters to you’ and has co-authored a chapter in a Textbook of Palliative Care. She has presented widely on the what matters to you movement, is a member of IHI faculty and continues to embed wmty in her work improving experience for both staff and patients.

Karen lives in South West London with her husband and two children, Amelie and Lola and her rabbit Pepper (who she sometimes thinks is her favourite house mate!).