Dr Elizabeth Davies

Biography

Elizabeth is an academic public health physician with research interests in cancer inequalities, patient experience, supportive and palliative care and medical humanities. Current work includes the first study of cancer in English prisons (funded by NIHR), national analyses of how patients' experiences of care might be linked to clinical outcomes and of the epidemiology and care of people with brain tumours. She leads the Cancer Epidemiology and Cancer Services Research Group and heads the Centre for Cancer, Society & Public Health within the School of Cancer and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Previously she held a research role within Public Health England and was London Director of Knowledge and Intelligence. 

Elizabeth qualified in Medicine at University College and Middlesex Hospital School of Medicine London in 1989, obtaining an MSc in Medical Sociology in 1986. She completed her PhD in 1998 at Queen Mary College, Westfield studying the quality of life for patients with malignant cerebral glioma and then developing clinical guidelines at the Research Unit of the Royal College of Physicians. After working at The Maudsley Hospital, Elizabeth trained in public health in South Thames between 1997 and 2001, becoming an honorary lecturer for Professor Irene Higginson. She moved formally to King’s College London in 2002 to co-edit World Health Organisation Guidance on Palliative Care, and gained a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship in 2003 to work at Harvard Medical School to study the use of patient experience survey data with Professor Paul Cleary.

Elizabeth joined the Thames Cancer Registry at King's in 2004 to work as senior lecturer with Professor Henrik Møller. She was responsible for developing epidemiological and health services research using cancer registration and other data, liaising with primary care trusts and cancer networks in South East England to develop information for services, and contributed to national and local policy groups. Elizabeth became Medical Director in 2008 and Reader in Cancer and Public Health in 2009. In 2012 she took up the Directorship, leading the 60 Thames Cancer Registry staff through the transfer in 2013 to Public Health England (PHE).