Ruth Thorlby joined the Health Foundation in February 2017 as Assistant Director (Policy).

Before joining the Health Foundation, Ruth was Deputy Director of Policy at the Nuffield Trust, where she worked on a range of research and policy analysis, including a study of the impact of the Francis Report on acute hospitals; an evaluation of using volunteers to reduce older people's risk of emergency admission from hospital and the access and quality of social care for older adults.

Prior to the Nuffield Trust, Ruth worked at the King's Fund, looking at the impact of NHS reform on the quality of services, and inequalities in access to care. In 2008-2009 she was a Harkness Fellow in Healthcare Policy and Practice, based at Harvard Medical School, where she conducted research on the use of race and ethnicity data to improve the quality of care.

Ruth spent fifteen years as a broadcast journalist at the BBC World Service, before leaving to do an MSc in Social Policy at the London School of Economics.