Working on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic, Ruby Wang witnessed systems under strain and grew determined to push for solutions that transcend political, cultural and geographical divides.
Moving from China to the UK aged 7, Ruby Wang understood from early on the importance of different points of view, a perspective that continues to drive her work today. Having grown up with dreams of becoming a reconstructive surgeon, she completed her undergraduate and master’s studies at Cambridge University before moving to UCL.
Drawn to the UCL Medical School and the chance to complete her clinical training at its world-renowned affiliated hospitals, Ruby thrived on UCL’s open and collaborative approach to teaching:
After rotations in my spare time, I would always go into theatre, and if the consultants saw you were eager to learn, they would let you scrub up and join in. I loved it.
She represented the British Medical Association as a resident doctor “during the Jeremy Hunt years”, where lobbying and advocacy work revealed new aspirations in health policy and led her to pursue an MMSc in global affairs at the prestigious Schwarzman Scholars at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
I was excited going to China because I felt I’d grown up within British society, and it felt important to go back to my cultural roots. That year of study helped me explore how I could think more creatively in healthcare beyond the hospital bedside, from health tech and AI to global health policy and international development.
During the COVID pandemic, Ruby was drafted to the hospital frontlines in London, working in palliative care with only iPads to offer as a link between patients and their loved ones.
A big part of being a doctor is providing safety, comfort and care, but it was extremely difficult for us to do that during those times. The chaos and uncertainty made everything even more devastating.
She was then appointed back to China, with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as Head of Health at the British Embassy in Beijing. Here she worked with a range of stakeholders, including Chinese ministries, foreign embassies, multilateral institutions, and industry leaders on sensitive and important areas of health diplomacy and collaboration. She describes this work as a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity”, adding “I learned so much, but it certainly wasn’t easy.”
Ruby worked as a health advisor to the UN in China before returning to the UK in 2022 to set up LINTRIS Health, a strategy consultancy that supports industry and the public sector to bridge the gap between China and the world on bio and health technologies, policy, governance and risk.
She also sits on the Royal Society of Medicine’s Digital Health Council and is a Fellow on Global Health at Asia Society. A keen writer and speaker, she founded the ChinaHealthPulse newsletter and podcast, and her book China Cure: the rise of a biotech, AI medicine and global health superpower is out in autumn 2026.
