Graham is Director of Research (research professor) at The Healthcare Improvement Studies Institute, University of Cambridge, where he leads research on the quality and safety of healthcare services, including how to improve the experiences of patients and healthcare staff.
He has over 20 years’ experience as a health services researcher, including previous appointments at the University of Leicester and the University of Nottingham prior to his move to Cambridge in 2018. He also has extensive senior leadership experience, including as head of the Department of Health Sciences at the University of Leicester, in advisory roles to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and other national bodies, and as a trustee of the Nuffield Trust.
Graham’s research focuses on the social, organisational and professional dimensions of healthcare system change – including, for example, how patients and the public can be involved in planning and making changes to services, and the changing role of the healthcare professions in delivering services and leading improvement.
Current and recent studies led by Graham include leading a national service evaluation team funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), a study of the introduction and development of new specialist roles to lead improvements in patient safety, and research looking at how best to ensure that concerns, issues and ideas identified by NHS staff are heard and acted on by the organisations that employ them.
Graham has a degree in Geography from Mansfield College, Oxford, and a Master’s in Society and Space from the University of Bristol. His PhD, from the University of Nottingham, focused on the involvement of patients and the public in the introduction of new cancer genetics services around England. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences.
Graham is an eternally optimistic Derby County football fan, and a guitarist who 'doesn’t play as much as I wish I did'.