Richard Hamblin (U.K.)

(United Kingdom)
Director of Quality Evaluation
Health Quality and Safety Commission
New Zealand

Richard Hamblin

Harkness Project Title: Informing for Improvement: The Who, How and What of Using Information to Improve the Provision of Health Care

Mentor: Eric Larson, M.D.

Placement: Center for Health Studies, Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, Seattle

Biography at time of Harkness Fellowship: Richard Hamblin, a 2006–07 Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy, is head of analytic support at the Healthcare Commission, the English health services regulator where his primary responsibility was ensuring a rigorous analytic and evidential base for regulatory activities. His previous career encompasses NHS management and health services research, including as a research officer at the King's Fund, where he produced studies on London's health care system, the effect of the introduction of the internal market into the NHS in the 1990s and methods of modeling waiting list dynamics. He joined the Healthcare Commission's predecessor body, the Commission for Health Improvement, at its inception to develop its analytic methods. His particular interest is in health informatics and the use of rigorous analysis of performance data as a tool for improvements in quality and efficiency of health services. He is a 1992 graduate of University College London.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

  • Director of Quality Evaluation, Health Quality and Safety Commission in Wellington, NZ, 2012
  • Director of Intelligence, Care Quality Commission, 2008
  • Head of Information Policy, Healthcare Commission, 2007
Current Position: Director of Quality Evaluation, Health Quality and Safety Commission, Wellington, New Zealand (Updated January 2012)

E-mail: hamblinsusa@yahoo.com

Harkness-Related Publications

Hamblin R, “Regulation, measurement and incentives. The experience in the US and UK: does context matter?” Journal of the Royal Society of Health, November 2008

Hamblin R, “Publishing quality measures, how it works and when it doesn’t,” International Journal for Quality in Healthcare, June 2007

Coleman K. and Hamblin R, “Can Pay-for-Performance Improve Quality and Reduce Health Disparities?,” June 2007

Hamblin R., Ganesh J, and Lockhart G, 2007 “Measure for measure,” Policy Exchange, London