Lucy Orr-Ewing Chief of Staff and Head of Policy

About me

Lucy Orr-Ewing is a 2023–24 UK Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice and Chief of Staff and Head of Policy for the Coalition for Health AI.

She was previously the Head of Strategy for the Federated Data Platform Programme, the UK’s largest investment into its data infrastructure. Prior to that, she was chief of staff to the director of technology policy for NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care, where she convened more than 200 portfolios of work into one strategy, the Digital Health and Care Plan, and delivered the NHS’ first HealthTech Summit. 

She is an active advocate of digital health and its potential to alleviate financial and capacity pressures, and to deliver affordable, equitable access to care: as an evaluator for Digital Health London’s startup accelerator program, an advisor to early-stage HealthTech ventures, a convener of a Women in HealthTech community, and a member of multiple government advisory groups. Before joining the NHS, she focused on building digital ventures, including her own, FastFutures, a digital skills programme that supported more than 10,000 underrepresented young people into work. She is particularly interested in improving collaboration between the public and private sector and is committed to enacting policy and behavioral change for innovation to have its greatest impact.