“He’s focused on quality of care, which has been greatly neglected in much of the medical community,” Hiatt said. “That extends all the way from how you lower death rates in an emergency room to how you lower waiting times in a doctor’s office.”

Berwick said he was “just thrilled” when he heard the news.

“I did not expect it,” he added. “I know that the work that they’re talking about is really the work of dozens of colleagues of mine.”

Besides his professorships at SPH and HMS, Berwick is also president and chief executive officer of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, a Cambridge-based nonprofit organization that aims to improve the quality of health care systems around the globe.

With degrees from three of Harvard’s schools, Berwick is well acquainted with the University. He graduated summa cum laude from the College, earned his medical degree from HMS in 1972, and received a masters in public policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government that same year.

According to a press release by the British Consulate-General, Berwick will receive the honor in a ceremony later this year.

Berwick’s knighthood—which does not require any additional responsibilities and does not offer any pay—is “honorary” because he is an American citizen. Only British citizens are appointed knights that can call themselves “sir.”

Knight Commander is the second rank of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, which was established in 1917.

Jarman, who was knighted in 1998, said that the honor did not have a major effect on his daily life.

“It’s very nice for my family,” he wrote. “[It] also helps when writing letters of complaint.”

—Staff writer Daniel J. T. Schuker can be reached at dschuker@fas.harvard.edu.