Dr Samantha Field
Samantha is a Public Health ST5 based in London, with an interest in digital health and global health. Her most recent role was in the Department of Health and Social Care, looking at how digital tools can be used in personalised population-level cardiovascular disease prevention as well as the implementation of Electronic Patient Records in the UK Overseas Territories.
After graduating from the University of Edinburgh with a Distinction in Medicine in 2013, she trained in internal medicine in London. During this time, she took part in an exchange programme to New Zealand, a Medical Education fellowship at Imperial College London, and a Global Health fellowship in Myanmar. She graduated with Distinction from her MSc in Global Health and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford in 2021 and subsequently took on public health training roles in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the WHO Regional Office for Europe. During her training she has published multiple articles in peer-reviewed journals, presented at conferences internationally and won prizes for work in medical education, as well as acting as a Trainee Representative for over 100 public health registrars in London.
She is a keen advocate for how health technologies can be used to improve healthcare delivery and population health. In 2021 her entry to the Wolfson Economic Prize on the potential of digital health to transform healthcare system design received Special Commendation, and she has spoken on this topic at the Treasury at conferences in the USA and Norway. She is co-chair of the Digital Health Special Interest Group of the Faculty of Public Health.
Her commitment to global health has seen her leading medical teams in refugee camps in Europe and on working on health system strengthening projects in Madagascar, Kenya, Somaliland, Tanzania, and Sierra Leone.
Reason for applying for the scheme
Samantha is delighted to be participating in the National Medical Director’s Clinical Fellow Scheme and hopes to apply learning from the programme to help shape health systems that optimise the health of populations on both a national and international level.
Having worked on healthcare improvement across different countries and different organisations, Samantha is a strong believer that the ability to display an understanding of issues from different perspectives is a key attribute of a good leader. The fellowship provides a unique opportunity to broaden her experience from a new vantage point whist remaining focussed on developing the leadership skills to effectively improve health outcomes across a population.
She sees the ability to collaborate across organisations and professional silos as a key skill for leaders trying to create impact in increasingly complex systems. She is looking forward to the cross-cutting nature of the fellowship which will provide excellent opportunities to understand how best how to not only work alongside, but co-operate with different organisations to maximise effectiveness and influence.
