Professor Chris Whitty delivers global health seminar

Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, delivered an insightful and engaging seminar on ‘Trends in Global Health’ to UCL staff and students earlier this week. This seminar marked the inaugural event in the Institute for Global Health’s new Global Health seminar series.

Professor Chris Whitty is Chief Medical Officer (CMO) for England, the UK government’s Chief Medical Adviser and head of the public health profession. He is also a practising NHS Consultant Physician at University College London Hospitals (UCLH) and the Hospital for Tropical Diseases.

Professor Whitty is an epidemiologist and has undertaken research and worked as a doctor in the UK, Africa and Asia. He was Professor of Public and International Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) before becoming CMO and remains an honorary professor.

Professor Whitty served as the Chief Scientific Adviser for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) from 2016 to 2021, overseeing research and development, including being head of the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the government’s major funder of clinical, public health, social care, and translational research. He was also interim Government Chief Scientific Adviser from 2017 to 2018 and prior to that, the Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for International Development (DFID), which included leading technical work on the West Africa Ebola outbreak and other international emergencies.

During his presentation, Professor Whitty delved into several critical areas of global health. He spoke to trends in child morbidity and mortality under 5, the prevalence of mental health illness in mid-teens and young adults and the trends in cancers and cardiovascular diseases for the over 50s.

At the conclusion of his speech, IGH’s Director, Shabbar Jaffar, expressed his gratitude to Professor Whitty. He remarked on the optimistic tone of the seminar, which provided a hopeful outlook on the future of global health despite the challenges discussed.

Following the seminar, the audience had the opportunity to engage directly with Professor Whitty during a Q&A session. Attendees posed questions on a variety of pertinent topics, including the impact of climate change on health, the decolonisation of health, funding for mental health research, and even asked for his personal recommendation on pursuing a career as a country’s Chief Medical Officer.

We are incredibly grateful to Professor Whitty for dedicating his time and expertise to speak to the health community at UCL.