Rate My Professor Mira Harrison-Woolrych

Dr Mira Harrison-Woolrych holds the qualifications BM and DM from the University of Southampton, DFFP, FRCOG, and FISoP. She trained as an obstetrician and gynaecologist in the United Kingdom, undertaking doctoral research on uterine fibroids at the University of Cambridge. Subsequently, she worked in medicines regulation, specialising in contraception and hormone replacement therapy, pharmacovigilance, pharmacoepidemiology, and medical ethics. From 2002 to 2013, she directed the New Zealand Intensive Medicines Monitoring Programme at the University of Otago.

Currently, Dr Harrison-Woolrych is Research Coordinator in the Department of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women's Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Otago, and Honorary Research Associate Professor at the Dunedin School of Medicine. In 2019, she was elected the first female President of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance and chairs its Women’s Medicines Special Interest Group. She has served on national committees including the Medicines Assessment Advisory Committee and was a member of the Southern Health and Disability Ethics Committee for nine years. She organises and chairs the monthly Obstetrics and Gynaecology Research Seminar in Dunedin, supporting women’s health researchers.

Her research interests include growth factors in uterine fibroids, women’s medicines, contraception, pharmacoepidemiology including nationwide cohort studies of intrauterine devices, international pharmacovigilance, assessment of pre-licensing clinical trials, and medical ethics, with a focus on women’s health. Key publications include editing Medicines for Women (2015) and co-authoring An Introduction to Pharmacovigilance (2017), alongside articles such as “Improving access to medicines for early medical abortion” (BMJ Sexual & Reproductive Health, 2023) and “An update on ISoP special interest groups” (Drug Safety, 2018). Her leadership and contributions have advanced pharmacovigilance globally, particularly in medicines safety for women.