A Life In Health - In Conversation With Dame Sally Davies

Join Dame Sally Davies as she talks to Vivienne Parry about her career-long commitment to improving health, healthcare and medical research.

Ten years ago Dame Sally spearheaded the creation of the National Institute for Health Research, transforming the NHS’s approach to clinical and applied research in the UK and driving improvements in outcomes for patients.

A clinician who specialised in sickle-cell disease, Dame Sally is the former head of Research and Development at the Department of Health and in her current role as the Chief Medical Officer for England — the first woman to hold this post — she strives to achieve both an evidence-based and patient-focused approach to health-related policy making.

Awarded a DBE for services to medicine in 2009, made a fellow of the Royal Society in 2014 and named the sixth most powerful woman in the UK by BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, Dame Sally is a champion of health research nationally and internationally.