Technology plays a huge role in healthcare in both the public and private sectors. It can help cut costs as budgets dwindle, manage massive NHS organisations and provide innovative modes of treatment.
CIO UK looks at some of the top IT leaders in healthcare.
Read next: Top UK Government CIOs, CTOs, CDOs and other IT leaders in Whitehall
Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust Chief Digital and Information Officer Richard Corbridge claimed the top spot in the CIO 100 in 2017. He earned his position based on his work as CEO of eHealth Ireland, a position he held for three years up to November 2017.
At eHealth Ireland, Corbridge led the creation of an individual health identifier, e-referral service, e-pharmacy system and Ireland’s first digital hospital. He also helped develop the infrastructure to support the genomic sequencing of patients with epilepsy.
He’s since returned to his home county of Yorkshire to take over one of the largest trusts in the UK, with the aim to solve its infrastructure problems and restore its reputation for innovation.
Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust CIO Rachel Dunscombe hit the top three in the CIO 100 in 2017 after she led the trust to be named the most digital organisation in the NHS by NHS England and win DigitalHealth’s Digital Trust of the Year award. Dunscombe was then named Director of Digital for the broader Salford Royal Group, and is CEO of the NHS Digital Academy.
During 2016 she brokered a partnership between NHS Digital and KLAS research, where she works as a paid researcher and advisory board member. She has also led the setup of a single Azure architecture, a single trust domain and seamless Wi-Fi network for Salford’s eight hospitals and numerous community settings.
Dunscombe joined the trust in 2015 after a two-year spell as CIO of Bolton NHS Foundation Trust.
NHS Blood and Transplant Chief Digital Officer Aaron Powell is a member of recent editions of the CIO 100, having deployed the organisation’s first major business-critical application in the cloud, a system that manages workflow and safely allocates hearts for transplant.
Powell centres his approach to digital on personalisation and connectedness. He does this by ensuring both donors and staff have a first-class service and by joining up data, processes and working practices across the organisation and the wider NHS.
He joined NHS Blood and Transplant in October 2009 as a project manager and progressed through the ranks to interim ICT director before his appointment as Chief Digital Officer in July 2015.
Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust CIO Joanna Smith is a serial CIO 100 member, and discussed the specialist heart and lung hospital’s digital transformation journey at the 2017 CIO Summit.
Smith has based her strategy on replacing an ageing and siloed IT estate with a cloud-first infrastructure and improved communications between IT and the rest of the organisation.
She has also led the digitisation of patient case notes, provision of real-time information about in-patients, and the introduction of new systems to support medicine prescriptions and to manage admissions and outpatient clinics.
AstraZeneca CIO David Smoley orchestrated a three-year IT transformation journey that saved the pharmaceutical giant $700 million and is another CIO 100 high-flyer.
The transformation achieved its objective of making IT “twice as good for half the cost” by harnessing the power of insourcing and cloud and mobile technology.
Smoley’s strategy combines adopting new technologies including such as virtual reality in factories, as well as simplifying and driving efficiencies in the supply chain to roll out new drugs more quickly.
He aims to keep pushing the boundaries of tech to achieve better business outcomes in the years to come.
Read next: AstraZeneca CIO David Smoley interview – From transformation to innovation agenda
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