On International Women’s Day 2026, we are celebrating the women who are driving innovation and shaping the future of patient safety research across our team. Their expertise, leadership, and lived experience are helping to transform how we understand risk, deliver safer care, and ensure that patient voices are meaningfully embedded in research.

We are delighted to spotlight one of our core team members, Dr Louise Gorman, who plays a key role in ensuring that all research projects across our four themes engage with communities on the ground and embed the voices and input of public contributors – such as patients, carers, and people with lived experience – from research design through to dissemination pathways.

Read Louise’s story in her own words below.

Meet Louise Gorman

Public and Community Involvement and Engagement (PCIE) Manager at the NIHR Greater Manchester PSRC

Hi! I’m Louise Gorman, and I’m proud to serve as the Public and Community Involvement and Engagement Manager here at NIHR Greater Manchester PSRC. I am also our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion manager—though if I tried to fit all that into a single job title, it would probably need its own postcode!

 

Before stepping into these roles, I spent years as a qualitative researcher: first as a research fellow working on cancer risk prediction, prevention and communication, and later as a research associate in our suicide and self-harm prevention theme. At heart, my discipline is Health Psychology: I’m always drawn to understanding the human experience behind the data.

 

But today, on International Women’s Day, I’ve been reflecting on what truly inspires me in my work. For me, it’s the connection—real, human connection—with patients, carers, members of the public, and healthcare staff. Research can easily pull you into spreadsheets, transcripts, theory, and long days of analysis. Yet the moment I sit with someone and listen to their story, everything becomes sharper and more meaningful.

 

Those conversations remind me why patient safety isn’t just a field—it’s a responsibility, and a privilege. They bring purpose to every project and every partnership. And they remind me that the people we involve aren’t just contributors to our research; they’re the heartbeat of it.

 

Women—whether as researchers, carers, patients, leaders, or community members—bring such depth, insight, empathy and strength to this work. Their experiences shape the questions we ask, the methods we choose, and the impact we hope to make.

 

Patients, carers and the public will always be my inspiration, but today I’m especially celebrating the women whose voices, expertise, lived experience and courage continue to shape safer, more equitable healthcare for all.

Women driving patient safety research

The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care.

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