Cookies on this website

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you click 'Continue' we'll assume that you are happy to receive all cookies and you won't see this message again. Click 'Find out more' for information on how to change your cookie settings.

John Powell

MA MB BChir MSc PhD PGCertMedEd MRCPsych FFPH FFCI


Professor of Digital Health

  • Professor of Digital Health Care
  • NIHR Senior Investigator
  • Senior Research Fellow, Jesus College
  • Consultant Public Health Physician
  • Digital Health Theme Lead, NIHR ARC
  • Digital Health Theme Lead, NIHR HRC
  • Co-Academic Director, MSc in Applied Digital Health

For prospective DPhil and MSc students

Please direct all enquiries about the MSc in Applied Digital Health to the Course Coordinator, Vivian Ansell vivian.ansell@phc.ox.ac.uk.

Please direct all enquiries about DPhil applications to the Graduate Studies Team, graduate.studies@phc.ox.ac.uk

I am not currently taking on any new DPhil students apart from the currently advertised project and I do not have any positions for visiting researchers or interns. 

Background and current work

John Powell is an academic public health physician studying healthcare in the digital age and how and why people use information and communication technologies in relation to health, and how services can harness digital and AI tools to deliver benefit. He has combined an academic career as Professor and NIHR Senior Investigator at the University of Oxford with national policy roles, most recently as a senior clinician at NICE, where he advised the NHS on the safe adoption of innovations in surgery, and on the appraisal of digital health technologies. He is an expert adviser to national agencies including PHE and MHRA. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Bristol, and the former Editor-in-Chief of NIHR Health Technology Assessment and NIHR Efficacy & Mechanism Evaluation. He has worked as a comedy writer and as a television drama advisor where his credits include Downton Abbey and the movie Ammonite. He was formerly Professor of Public Health at the University of Warwick where he helped establish the Institute for Digital Healthcare. He was the Clinical Director of NHS Choices, the NHS website. He has degrees in Social and Political Sciences and in Clinical Medicine. He has an H-index of 62.

Key publications

The impact of social media influencers on health outcomes: Systematic review

Journal article

Powell J. and Pring T., (2024), Social Science and Medicine, 340

Adoption and Use of the NHS App in England: a mixed-methods evaluation

Journal article

Kc S. et al, (2023), The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 73

Trust me, i'm a chatbot: How artificial intelligence in health care fails the turing test

Journal article

Powell J., (2019), Journal of Medical Internet Research, 21

What is an appropriate level of evidence for a digital health intervention?

Journal article

Greaves F. et al, (2018), Lancet, 392, 2665 - 2667

Recent publications

Bridging the gap: a mixed-methods real-world pilot of a digital intervention for adults with binge eating

Journal article

Osborne EL. et al, (2026), Journal of Eating Disorders, 14

Evaluating the national rollout of the NHS App in England using qualitative and quantitative methods

Journal article

Greaves F. et al, (2026), Health and Social Care Delivery Research, 14, 1 - 91

The NHS App should focus on inequalities to improve population health

Journal article

Laverty AA. et al, (2026), Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 119, 37 - 41