Sir Stephen Huw Powis is national medical director for England, in the

National Health Service The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

(NHS), appointed at the start of 2018 to succeed Sir Bruce Keogh. He is also a professor of renal medicine at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

Family and education

His father was a chaplain at the

Christie Hospital The Christie Hospital in Manchester, England, is one of the largest cancer treatment centres in Europe. It is managed by The Christie NHS Foundation Trust. History The hospital was established by a committee under the chairmanship of Richard Ch ...

, Manchester. Powis studied medicine at

Glasgow University , image = UofG Coat of Arms.png , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms Flag , latin_name = Universitas Glasguensis , motto = la, Via, Veritas, Vita , ...

and

St John's College, Oxford St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded as a men's college in 1555, it has been coeducational since 1979.Communication from Michael Riordan, college archivist Its founder, Sir Thomas White, intended to pro ...

, matriculating in 1979. He obtained a PhD while working at the

Imperial Cancer Research Fund Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

. He also holds an MBA from

Warwick University , mottoeng = Mind moves matter , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £7.0 million (2021) , budget = £698.2 million (2020� ...

Professional career

Powis joined the

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (formerly the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust) is an NHS foundation trust based in London, United Kingdom. It comprises Royal Free Hospital, Barnet Hospital, Chase Farm Hospital, as well as clinics run ...

in 1997 as a consultant, becoming the trust's medical director in 2006 and chief clinical information officer in 2016. He left the Royal Free at the end of 2017 to become medical director of

NHS England NHS England, officially the NHS Commissioning Board, is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care. It oversees the budget, planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the commissioning side of the ...

, a post he took up at the beginning of 2018. During this time, Powis was involved in a partnership for the Royal Free to share information with

Google Deepmind DeepMind Technologies is a British artificial intelligence subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. and research laboratory founded in 2010. DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Alphabet Inc, after Google's restru ...

. His main clinical interest is renal transplantation. He is a past non-executive director of

North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust North Middlesex University Hospital NHS Trust is an NHS trust which runs North Middlesex University Hospital in Edmonton, London and community services in Enfield. The trust serves more than 350,000 people living in the London boroughs of Enfield ...

(including a period of eight months as acting chairman), chair of the Association of UK Hospitals medical directors' group, and chairman of the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board speciality advisory committee for renal medicine. He sat on the board of

Medical Education England Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

. He edited '' Nephron Clinical Practice'' from 2003 to 2008 and was inaugural editor-in-chief of the '' BMJ Leader'' from 2017. During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, which began in the spring of 2020, he frequently spoke as part of the government's team for daily briefings. In 2021 he was appointed as interim chief executive officer of

NHS Improvement NHS Improvement (NHSI) was a non-departmental body in England, responsible for overseeing the National Health Service's foundation trusts and NHS trusts, as well as independent providers that provide NHS-funded care. It supported providers to ...

. He was created a

Knight Bachelor The title of Knight Bachelor is the basic rank granted to a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not inducted as a member of one of the organised orders of chivalry; it is a part of the British honours system. Knights Bachelor are the ...

, for services to the NHS, particularly during Covid-19, in the Queen's

2022 Birthday Honours The 2022 Queen's Birthday Honours are appointments by some of the 15 Commonwealth realms of Queen Elizabeth II to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The Birthday Honours are awarded as par ...

References

External links

*
Video of Powis speaking
on

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Powis, Stephen National Health Service people Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Place of birth missing (living people) Physicians of the Royal Free Hospital Academics of University College London British nephrologists Alumni of St John's College, Oxford Knights Bachelor