NHS data chief Ming Tang wins Covid Unsung Hero award

The interim chief data and analytics officer at NHS England and Improvement has been announced as the winner of a Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) Covid Unsung Heroes award.

Ming Tang, who spoke at Digital Health Rewired in 2021, was awarded the IQVIA Data Solution Award in recognition of her creation of the Covid Data Store which predicted supply and demand in the NHS at different times of the pandemic.

It enabled the establishment of an ‘on the ground truth’ across the NHS, which ensured that critical care staff, PPE and medications were being placed in the right locations at the right times. Work on the Covid Data Store has been continuous since Palantir were awarded a £23million contract in December 2020.

Using artificial intelligence to fill a Covid supply chain abyss, Tang’s work brought together multiple diverse stakeholders to create a unified national team at a time of crisis.

The awards highlight women whose actions and brilliance have helped improve lives and communities during the pandemic, but who may have so far received little recognition.

The ceremony was held at Windsor Castle, with Tang being presented the award by The Princess Royal, who is a long-standing patron of WISE, the partner of choice for organisations that want to make a real, sustainable improvement to gender balance in STEM roles in the UK.

Kay Hussain, chief executive of WISE, said: “It has been an honour and a privilege to witness the work of these amazing women over the last two years. Each nominee has a made a superb contribution during the pandemic and we truly wish that we could have celebrated them all as winners.

“Since being appointed CEO of WISE in the height of the pandemic, I have been so impressed by the tenacity, excellence and vision demonstrated by so many women in STEM, and none more so, than those recognised last night. We want to personally thank each of them for contributions they have made to our society.”

Other winners of the awards included:

• Dr Amy Thomas, Tech Award Winner (supported by Pfizer)
• Dr Anna Young, New Educator Award Winner (supported by PA Consulting)
• Tolulope Oke, Inclusion and Diversity Award Winner (supported by Hyper Recruitment Solutions)
• Susan McDonald, Community Champion Award Winner (supported by the NHS)
• Fiona Bennington, Responsive Hero Award Winner (supported by AWE)