Annegret Friederike Hannawa (born 27 April 1979 in Konstanz, Germany) is a German communication scientist and director of the Center for the Advancement of Healthcare Quality and Safety (CAHQS) at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano.

[5] Hannawa received her first academic appointment at Wake Forest University (WFU) in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA, as tenure-track assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies.

[10] Also in 2013, she received funding from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to develop evidence-based communication guidelines for disclosing medical errors to patients.

[19][20][21] Hannawa's research focuses primarily on how "safe communication" can prevent harmful errors in everyday clinical practice and ensure high-quality healthcare, particularly in the digital age.

[23][24] According to her statistics, 53 patients die every day in Germany as a result of treatment errors;[25] up to 80 percent of these cases can be traced back to unsafe communication.