Barbara Joyce McNeil

McNeil was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1941. She graduated from Emmanuel College with a degree in chemistry in 1962. She then studied medicine at Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1966. She did a one-year internship in pediatrics at Massachusetts General Hospital, then began a doctorate program as a National Institutes of Health research fellow at Harvard. She finished her PhD in biological chemistry in 1972. She returned to clinical work, doing a residency program in radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital.^[1]

After finishing her training, she stayed at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital as an instructor of radiology beginning in 1974. By 1983, she had been appointed as a full professor of clinical epidemiology and radiology.^[1] Since 1990, she has been the Ridley Watts Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School.^[2] McNeil has also conducted research into technology assessment and quality of care. A more recent study McNeil conducted was supported by the Department of Veterans. The study focused on the quality of care veterans with cardiac disease received; the study led to many quality of care changes for veterans with cardiac disease. ^[3]