Kathryn McDonald is an American scientist who is Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the

Johns Hopkins University The Johns Hopkins University (often abbreviated as Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private university, private research university in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1876 based on the European research institution model, J ...

. She serves as co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Diagnostic Excellence. McDonald previously led the Centre for Health Policy at

Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies Stanford University has many centers and institutes dedicated to the study of various specific topics. These centers and institutes may be within a department, within a school but across departments, an independent laboratory, institute or center ...

. Her research considers what makes for high-quality and safe healthcare delivery systems.

Early life and education

McDonald was an undergraduate student at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

, where she majored in chemical engineering. She moved to the

Kellogg School of Management The Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management (branded as Northwestern Kellogg) is the graduate business school of Northwestern University, a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois. History Early ...

for graduate studies, where she earned a

Master of Management The Master of Management (MM, MiM, MMgt) is a master's degree comprising one or two years graduate level coursework in business management. In terms of content, it is similar to the Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree as it contain ...

(MM) in 1992. She returned to Stanford University in the early 1990s, where she worked in the Medical School. McDonald eventually completed a doctorate in public health at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

in 2017. Her doctoral research looked at ambulatory care organizations and how they can help to improve the diagnosis of medical conditions. She was the member of a committee who found that the majority of

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

physicians had made one faulty diagnosis. She estimated that over 12 million adults were misdiagnosed every year.

Research and career

McDonald held various positions in the

Stanford University School of Medicine The Stanford University School of Medicine is the medical school of Stanford University and is located in Stanford, California, United States. It traces its roots to the Medical Department of the University of the Pacific, founded in San Fra ...

. She founded and directed the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research. She develops tool measure patient safety and healthcare quality. She created healthcare quality measurements (so-called

quality indicator A performance indicator or key performance indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement. KPIs evaluate the success of an organization or of a particular activity (such as projects, programs, products and other initiatives) in which it en ...

s) which collect and analyze data from hospitals. She was awarded the

Society for Medical Decision Making The Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) is an organization of researchers, clinicians, educators, managers and policy makers based in Bridgewater, New Jersey. It researches and uses rigorous and transparent methodologies in health and cli ...

Saenger Distinguished Service Award in 2007. She has investigated the ways that a patient's protected characteristics (including age, gender and race) contribute to errors in medical diagnoses. She has also studied how the time constraints placed on nurses and clinicians impacts patient safety. In 2019, McDonald was appointed a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor at the

. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

McDonald studied healthcare worker protection and the decision-making process.

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:McDonald, Kathryn Johns Hopkins University faculty Stanford University alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Living people