The Australian National University medical school's deputy dean recently returned to Canberra after nearly a year overseas after she won a prestigious Harkness Fellowship last year.

As part of the fellowship, Professor Mitchell was placed at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and told how the fellowship gave her huge exposure to the US health system "both from a policy perspective, but also from a research perspective".

Professor Mitchell said she was also able to learn about other international health systems as she participated in a program with 12 other Harkness fellows from across the globe.

Professor Mitchell was the director of Canberra Hospital's intensive care unit for 15 years and she became the deputy dean of ANU's medical school in July.

"This is an opportunity to use my leadership skills that I developed as a director of intensive care for 15 years and also use the academic skills I've developed over the last few years and combine those. Also it's an opportunity to shape the future of your doctors," said Professor Mitchell, who will remain a specialist in ICU.

Professor Mitchell said the fellowship gave her the opportunity to explore healthcare policy and research and saw her visit Washington DC for a policy briefing week where she was introduced to senators, congressmen, lobbyists and public servants.

"The program was really extraordinary in that you really did get to meet people who were truly making the huge American healthcare decisions," she said.

Professor Mitchell also undertook a research project interviewing international patient safety experts as part of her fellowship.

"One of my main incentives in going to Johns Hopkins School of Public Health is that they're affiliated to the Armstrong Institute, which is really a patient safety institute that looks not only at education in patient safety, but also using the tools to then do research in patient safety," she said.

Asked about what Australia could learn from the US health system, Professor Mitchell said "thinking outside the normal square box" was important.

"And how then you might push the frontiers to ensure that our healthcare system is the safest healthcare system. Just because we've been doing it for 100 years, doesn't mean to say that's the right way to do it, and [we can] challenge it," she said.

"That's certainly the sentiments you pick up in the United States ... they're prepared to take risks, be innovative and push forward. It may not always work but certainly they're always keen to give it a go."