Healthcare Science Week 2026 - What's a Clinical Computer Scientist? | News

What do Louis Pasteur and Marie Curie have in common?  Both were legendary scientists whose work revolutionised the future of medicine, and both early healthcare scientists.  This week, Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust is celebrating their professional descendants: the more than 240 healthcare scientists working across the organisation.

The trust is marking Healthcare Science Week 2026 by highlighting the integral role these teams play as its scientific backbone, supporting better diagnosis, new treatments and improved patient outcomes.

Nationally, healthcare science underpins 80% of all NHS diagnoses and three in four clinical decisions are informed by scientific expertise. At Royal Surrey, Dr Gail Anastasi Distefano is the Lead Healthcare Scientist alongside her clinical role as Principal Radiotherapy Physicist. She explains: 

“We sit at the intersection between science and real human impact; some healthcare scientists are mainly working in labs or behind the scenes, but still directly change patient care.  You could be working clinically or performing research in radiation physics, cardiology, audiology or life sciences; as a problem-solving and innovation-driven scientist, it’s the place to be!” 

Meet Eliana Salas Villa.  Eliana has just started her career at Royal Surrey in the Scientific computing (SciCom) team as part of the NHS Scientist Training Programme (STP) Clinical Scientific Computing specialism. The SciCom team at Royal Surrey can be working on around 75 projects at any one-time supporting clinicians to apply computer science, software engineering and data analysis to enhance patient care and clinical workflows.

Eliana’s story:

I knew when I was 15 that I wanted to work in a healthcare setting but I also knew traditional clinical roles weren’t the right fit for me. My strengths were in physics, mathematics and life sciences, so I was motivated to combine those skills in a way that would have an impact on patients. 

I did my first degree in bioengineering in Colombia and did some research in neuroscience. We were looking at patients who had vision problems after head injuries caused by an accident. We studied their brain signals as they were trying to focus and compared them to a control group to work out what differences there were.  This led me onto further research in Germany and then to France for my master’s degree, where I could dig deeper in the numerical analysis of medical signals and images (like MRI scans); this time using them to predict patient outcomes in different types of cancer. The research was very interesting but I wanted to take my ideas and knowledge and apply it in the real-world healthcare setting. 

Then I came across the NHS Scientist Training Programme which allows you to balance work and study to become a qualified clinical scientist. Then I saw the UK’s Scientist Trainee Programme which allows you to balance work and study.  Royal Surrey’s scientific computing department is nationally respected and I am so happy that I was able to get a place on the programme to work here while continuing my studies.  

I’m currently shadowing others in different departments to see what their needs are from the computer perspective, working out whether developing an app, a new software or improving their existing systems could result in something that’s more effective or efficient for them.

Would I recommend it? If you like physics, engineering and programming, and you want to have an impact in healthcare, then this is the best role you can choose!

To find out more about how to make a difference in a healthcare science role visit the NHS careers website or get more information about training go to the National School of Healthcare Science website.