James O’Shaughnessy

A member of the UK House of Lords, James O’Shaughnessy has been involved in healthcare at the highest levels of government for many years. Between 2016 and 2018, he served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department of Health (later the Department of Health and Social Care), leading efforts to enhance innovation in the NHS. He was responsible in this role for the development of the UK’s Life Sciences Industrial Strategy and acted as ministerial lead for key public sector organizations such as NHS Digital and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). Before joining the House of Lords, James held a variety of policy roles, including Deputy Director and later Visiting Fellow at the highly-influential think tank Policy Exchange. He was Director of Policy to Prime Minister David Cameron, having served as Director of Policy and Research at the Conservative Party between 2007 and 2010, and he played a leading role in writing the Party’s manifesto for its successful 2010 general election campaign. James is currently a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity and a Visiting Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation, Imperial College London. He also supports many organizations as an advisor or director, including Health Data Research UK, the healthcare and life sciences consultancy Newmarket Strategy, the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge, Bain & Company, and a number of successful health tech ventures. These include Healthy.io, which uses AI to provide smartphone-based remote clinical testing and Push Doctor, a video consultation platform.