Group Chief Medical Officer of Medicover; Chair of start-ups Cerina and Fitness Genes
Course: MBChB, Medicine, 1976
Andrew may be of interest to Medical students, or those with interest in careers in health.
Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen graduated from the Birmingham Medical School in 1976. During his time at the University of Birmingham, Dr Vallance-Owen was President of the Guild of Students (1974/1975) and, later, he was Chair of the Guild Trustee Board (2011-2013). A trained surgeon, he then joined the staff of the British Medical Association – during that time, he was Head of Policy and a spokesman for both the BMA and the medical profession.
Dr Vallance-Owen retired from Bupa in 2012 where he was the Group Chief Medical Officer for 17 years; he was accountable for the safety and quality of care of Bupa’s 11 million customers. At Bupa, he built an external profile; he is a keen advocate of improved doctor-patient communications, measurement of clinical performance and shared decision making.
After leaving Bupa, he promoted UK healthcare plc in developing markets overseas on behalf of the Government. He has recently stepped down from his role as Senior Independent Director at the Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust. He was Chair of the UK’s Private Healthcare Information Network (2014-2022) and is Group Chief Medical Officer of Medicover, a private healthcare company working in Eastern Europe, Germany and India. He is also working with Jamie Oliver as an expert adviser to ‘Bite Back 2030’, a youth-led campaign to halve childhood obesity in the UK by 2030.
In addition, Dr Vallance-Owen is supporting entrepreneur, health-tech start-ups. He is currently Chair of the Boards of Cerina (mental health) and Fitness Genes; and Medical Advisor to iamYiam, a successful digital company using artificial intelligence in the non-medical health promotion space. He has also just taken up the chair of the Project Advisory Group of a 2-year Government funded research project comparing the safety and quality of care of the UK’s NHS and private hospitals.
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