Prof John Newton, OBE FRCP FFPH FRSPH

Director of Public Health Analysis

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)

Biography

John is a public health physician and epidemiologist currently Director of Public Health Analysis at the Department of Health and Social Care and Professor of Public Health and Epidemiology at the University of Exeter.  He is also Garden Fellow at the Royal College of Physicians in London, and President of the Scientific Advisory Board of Sante publique France.

In the past he has been an academic epidemiologist at the University of Oxford, Director of R&D at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust, the first Chief Executive Officer of UK Biobank, a Regional Director of Public Health and vice-president of the Faculty of Public Health.  As Director of Health Improvement at Public Health England (2018 -2021) he was responsible for PHE’s work on tobacco control and spoke regularly to the media on electronic cigarettes and vaping.

Other notable achievements include setting up the UK Biobank study, leading the national public health intelligence functions in England, leading Public Health England’s work on statistics, cancer registration and health improvement nationally, and leading work in England on the Global Burden of Disease Study.  During the coronavirus pandemic he was appointed by the Secretary of State as the national clinical co-ordinator for coronavirus testing, helped design the ONS coronavirus survey, and oversaw the Government’s national coronavirus dashboard.

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