Oliver Harrison

Oliver Harrison is a Visiting Research Fellow at Green Templeton College, University of Oxford.

Oliver is Founder CEO of Koa Health, a mental healthcare company using deep tech to boost access to quality services. With a first degree in neuroscience at Cambridge, Oliver qualified as a medical doctor (UCL) and practiced for six years with postgraduate training in psychiatry (Imperial) and public health (Johns Hopkins), with a research fellowship in human consciousness at Queen Square.

Working in the NHS as a psychiatrist, Oliver saw that technology could help transform access to high quality services. When two friends committed suicide on NHS waitlists for depression treatment, he committed his career to achieving this goal. To learn how to deliver technology projects, he spent five years in the McKinsey Health Tech Practice. In 2006, he was recruited to help bring modern healthcare to the UAE. In seven years as Director of Public Health, he put data at the heart of the new healthcare system, using that data to tackle population health challenges including diabetes, heart disease, cancer, road accidents, and infectious disease. Based on the impact achieved, Oliver was invited by Telefonica (an international telecoms company that owns O2 in the UK) to build a new healthcare business, which is now Koa Health. He was also invited to advise the WHO, the Wellcome Trust, and NHS England.

Oliver has contributed more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, 8 patents, and a lot of presentations. In 2012, he was awarded the Freedom of the City of London, and in 2024 he was awarded a Royal Society fellowship as Entrepreneur in Residence at the University of Oxford with a focus on AI in healthcare. Oliver is a Trustee of a Multi-Academy Trust in SE London, and a Trustee of The Honeypot Children’s Charity. He lives in St Albans with his wife, Victoria and two gorgeous girls.

As a serial innovator in healthcare, Oliver is pleased to have found his home in Oxford. Green Templeton College’s focus on healthcare and enterprise is an exciting combination. Worldwide, healthcare is in dire need of transformation. With the advent of healthcare data, and the power of AI and machine learning tools, Oxford has the potential to be a true global powerhouse. He looks forward to building friendships and collaborations through the college, and to making a contribution to college life.