Victoria Heath, who has worked for the NHS since she was 18, has appointed as Wales’ first chief healthcare science officer. She will advise the Welsh government on how to use healthcare science effectively, including modernising and introducing new diagnostic technologies.

Her role will need her to support and represent more than 50 different roles within the healthcare science professions across Wales.

She is moving from the NHS’ ME-5 Pathology Network, where she was responsible for the development and implementation of workforce initiatives.

Victoria, also an award-winning science communicator, started her career as a biomedical scientist trainee in Oxfordshire, and registered as a biomedical scientist in 2010 and a clinical scientist in 2023. Experienced in healthcare science roles across the UK, she was deployed to Sierra Leone in 2015 to respond to the West African Ebola Outbreak.

She is set to take up her new role this month. She said: “I’m honoured to be appointed to the roe of chief healthcare science officer at the Welsh government and to work alongside the 7,000 healthcare scientists who contribute to healthcare across Wales.

“Healthcare scientists are a vital part of the patient pathway and I’m excited for this opportunity to raise their profile.”