Miss Kaori Hara
PhD Student in Public Services Management and Organisation
Research interests
- Public Services Management & Organisation
Biography
Project Title: Navigating Multi-Level Governance in NHS Integrated Care Systems: Aligning Centralised Policies with Local Collaborative Practice
Year of Entry: 2024, Full-Time
Supervisors: Dr Sam van Elk, Professor Gerry McGivern
Kaori Hara is a PhD student in Public Services Management and Organisation at King's Business School. She specialises in governance and collaboration within NHS Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). Her research explores how governance frameworks shape collaboration between healthcare professionals, organisations, and sectors, with a particular focus on tensions between professional autonomy and managerial structures. By investigating the dynamics of inter-organisational and inter-professional partnerships, her work aims to inform healthcare policy and improve the effectiveness of integrated care. Her doctoral studies is fully funded by the King’s Business School Doctoral Studentship.
Areas of Expertise:
• Governance & Collaboration in Healthcare
• Healthcare Policy & Management
• Quality Improvement & Service Integration
Before joining King’s, Kaori gained extensive experience as a clinician, health policy researcher and project manager across the UK, Japan, and Nepal. She worked in policy development and advocacy at the World Physiotherapy Organisation, contributing to global health policy recommendations, including a policy framework on climate change and health. In the NHS, she worked as a Senior Physiotherapist, leading quality improvement initiatives in primary care. In Japan, she managed a rehabilitation team in a hospital setting, overseeing workforce development and service delivery. Additionally, she coordinated a healthcare capacity-building project in Nepal as part of an official development assistance (ODA) programme, training local healthcare professionals and implementing primary care interventions.
She holds an MSc in Global Public Health and Policy from Queen Mary University of London, where her Distinction-awarded dissertation focused on self-management support interventions for musculoskeletal conditions.