School of Applied Sciences; Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science
Professor Susan Hill is a respiratory scientist, working for most of her career in the NHS and academia in Birmingham* where she continues to have research interests. She is professional head of the 50,000 strong scientific workforce in the NHS and related organisations andcame into post as Chief Scientific Officer in 2002.
She provides advice to ministers and senior government officials on the healthcare science workforce and the services they deliver, and leads on or contributes to the development of policy and other initiatives.
She works across Government and with a range of external stakeholders to deliver strategic change through new and innovative ways of working, and improve services to patients and the public. She is passionate about raising awareness of the role and achievements of healthcare scientists as well as bringing science in health to life for young people, which she does as part of her role as DH Science and Society champion.
Working for the Department of Health, Professor Hill has added several other areas to her portfolio, including appointment in 2004 as the National Clinical Lead for Physiological Measurement Diagnostics, inclusive of the national audiology programme and more recently as the Workforce and Technology Lead. In 2006 she took on the role of National Clinical Lead for respiratory conditions including the development of the COPD national strategy.
She is Vice President of the British Lung Foundation, having had a long association with the charity since its inception in the early 1980s. In 2005 she was awarded an OBE.
*University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (and its predecessors) and University of Birmingham.
