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Polly  Mitchell

Dr Polly Mitchell

Post Doctoral Research Fellow in Bioethics and Public Policy

Research interests

  • Healthcare

Biography

Polly is a post-doctoral research fellow on the Wellcome Trust-funded project “But why is that better?”, which investigates how applied philosophy and ethics can inform and support healthcare quality improvement.

Before joining King’s, she completed her PhD in Philosophy at UCL, focussing on the philosophy of well-being. Prior to this Polly worked for several years in healthcare quality improvement, managing a national clinical audit project and researching patient reported outcomes.

Research

“But why is that better” explores the complex and contested concepts of healthcare quality and healthcare quality improvement. We seek to work within quality improvement, using the tools of applied philosophy, to address some of the ethical and conceptual challenges faced by researchers and quality improvement practitioners.

Outside of the project, Polly's research broadly concerns the philosophy of health and well-being. In particular, she thinks and writes about the definition and measurement of health and well-being, and the role that measures of health and well-being play in healthcare decision-making and public policy.

Polly has trained as a philosopher, but she likes to tread the boundaries between philosophy and other disciplines. Her interdisciplinary research interests include health policy, economics (particularly utility theory), and psychometrics.

Find out more about Polly's research on her PURE profile.

    Research

    CPPR but why is that better_unsplash
    'But why is that better?'

    ''But why is that better?' An investigation of what applied philosophy and ethics can bring to quality improvement work in healthcare'.

    Project status: Ongoing

    women at wokr
    Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR)

    The Centre for Public Policy Research is an interdisciplinary research centre research developing critical analyses of social change and social in/justice in education and other policy arenas, sectors and contexts to inform national and international policy debate, social activism, and personal, professional and organisational learning.

    Features

    Must-reads in education, communication and social sciences

    The School of Education, Communication & Society at King’s College London houses research from a range of different fields – from linguistics to education...

    Books side by side-tom-hermans-1903x558

      Research

      CPPR but why is that better_unsplash
      'But why is that better?'

      ''But why is that better?' An investigation of what applied philosophy and ethics can bring to quality improvement work in healthcare'.

      Project status: Ongoing

      women at wokr
      Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR)

      The Centre for Public Policy Research is an interdisciplinary research centre research developing critical analyses of social change and social in/justice in education and other policy arenas, sectors and contexts to inform national and international policy debate, social activism, and personal, professional and organisational learning.

      Features

      Must-reads in education, communication and social sciences

      The School of Education, Communication & Society at King’s College London houses research from a range of different fields – from linguistics to education...

      Books side by side-tom-hermans-1903x558