Dr John Øvretveit
Dr John Øvretveit is Director of Research and Professor of health care innovation implementation and evaluation at the Medical Management Centre, The Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, and previously Professor of Health Policy and Management at Bergen University Medical School, Norway and at the Nordic School of Public Health, Gothenburg, Sweden. He currently holds visiting professor appointments at UCLA school of public health, The VA implementation science center, The University of New South Wales, Australia, London City University and Erasmus University, The Netherlands.
John’s work is based on the belief that organisation and management can bring out the best and worst in people, and that the right organisation design is critical for effective healthcare. A theme underlying his work is how practical research can contribute both to better care for patients and to “healthy work organization”. Much of his work uses different social sciences to explain and predict events and processes in health care and clinical practice. He was awarded the 2014 Avedis Donabedian international quality award for his work on quality economics.
His current research examines implementation of management and organisation improvements, clinical care coordination for safety and lower costs, and using digital health technologies to improve health and healthcare. His research publications on leading value improvement explore the costs and savings of quality improvements.
Some earlier work describes action evaluation methods for giving rapid feedback for service providers and policy-makers to improve their services and for assessing the role of context on implementation. He has worked most of his career carrying out and teaching the type of research which makes both a practical and scientific contribution: the methods and studies he has published show that scientific rigor is necessary for developing effective lasting solutions to practical problems.
John is a Norwegian-Brit with expertise in the fields of health service quality, health management, organisation, evaluation, interprofessional cooperation and health reforms. He has undertaken health evaluation and development projects in a number of African countries, Yemen, Indonesia, Thailand, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, the Baltic countries and the USA.
Translations of some of his 300 peer-reviewed scientific papers and books have been made into nine languages. Six books have won publications awards, including twice winner of the European Health Management Association Award and the Baxter health publication of the year prize for “Action Evaluation” (2002) and “Health Service Quality” (1992). He is currently a reviewer for and editorial board member of eight scientific health journals, a board member of the Joint Commission Resources/International, of the UK NHS national research and commissioning programme for service and delivery and organisation, advisor since 1995 to The Netherlands Health Service Research Council, and reviewer for the USA patient-centered outcomes research institute (PCORI).
