Meet the Speakers

Jim has a proven track record of delivering business growth, with more than 25 years of experience in director-level positions across technology, distribution and consulting.

Before he joined BridgeHead, Jim was executive vice president of worldwide sales and services at CarbonFlow Corporation. Prior to that he served as CEO of Extraprise International, divisional VP of Object Design, European director of UIS (one of the companies that formed Sprint), and a number of sales and marketing roles at ICL (now part of Fujitsu).

Jim holds an MBA from Henley Management College, as well as a Diploma in Management Studies from Kingston Management College and a degree from the London School of Economics.

Graham is a founding director of Insource, which was set up in 1994. Over the past 16 years Graham has worked closely with clients across the NHS, balancing the ability to understand client’s individual business issues with an understanding of the challenges faced by those running healthcare organisations. Graham brings a significant amount of relevant expertise to trusts who are seeking advice on advanced business intelligence projects.

Mark Blakeman is Director of Informatics for University Hospital South Manchester NHS Trust. Since starting at the Trust seven years ago, he has led a major upgrade of the Trust IT infrastructure, including implementing new PAS, PACS, theatres, maternity, electronic ordering, discharge prescribing and email systems.

Mark has also taken on a variety of non IT roles at the Trust, including helping the Hospital to achieve Foundation Trust status.

Prior to his current role, Mark has held Director of IM&T posts in community and mental health trusts and has a variety of professional and academic qualifications including an MBA.

Lisa Brady is Head of the Health Informatics Department at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, where she has worked for over six years. Lisa has worked on a variety of projects, including the development and implementation of an innovative, online system giving patients real-time access to their health records, information and support. She holds an M.Sc in Health Services Management (Warwick University) and B.App.Sc in Health Information Management (Sydney University). Lisa moved to the UK after completing a graduate health management development programme in Australia, which involved working in hospitals, public health agencies and government departments, across a range of areas including: community, allied and mental health services; finance; health protection and policy; clinical governance; and human resources.

Tracy leads a social enterprise which has over 850 staff and an annual turnover of £37million. A staff owned mutual, it provides a full range of community services, including four community hospitals, district nursing, therapies, prison healthcare and a GP Practice. She also chairs another social enterprise in Rotherham which provides primary care across three practices.

Tracy was previously a policy lead at the Department of Health focussing on the development of the NHS Contract for Community Services. Prior to this Tracy spent over 20 years working in the NHS in operational and commissioning roles.

With over a decade of experience in ICT, Drew Evans has lead the use of technology within healthcare at Aneurin Bevan Health Board. As Head of ICT, he is responsible for the development of major technical policies, standards, strategies and ICT lead on major capital projects e.g. Clinical Futures program including the design, deployment of all ICT services in 3 new hospitals. New hospital designs have a high dependency on ICT services and innovative technology will drive service improvement and efficiency of services. Most recently, Drew led the implementation of Vocera’s wireless communication solution across two of the Health Board hospitals, which has already delivered significant benefits for the clinical staff as well as patients. Wireless has also played a major part in delivering benefits to clinical appliances from monitoring to Telehealth technology.

At a national level Drew plays a significant role collaborating with other NHS organisations and public Sector bodies to supporting services to patients and citizens. For example, extranet services, Cloud based services and Integrated service teams to work with Frail patients/citizens across social and health care professionals to work together delivering huge benefit across Wales improving patient safety and discharge processes whilst reducing risk to patients and staff.

Aneurin Bevan Health Board covers a population of 500,000 and has 60+ sites and 12,000+ users within clinics, health centres, hospitals and acute sites spread over a large geographical diverse county. Drew’s work has a direct impact upon support of patient care services, their continuity, delivery of solutions and their transition into production and their ongoing operational support. Major medical services run 24x7 and rely on a highly available infrastructure.

Siobhan Hanna has been the Assistant Director of Informatics since the inception of the Southern Health & Social Care Trust, when 4 legacy Trusts merged to one in April 2007. The Southern Trust is an integrated acute, community, mental health and social services Trust, located over a wide rural geographical area in Northern Ireland, with staff based in over 100 facilities. The Trust serves a population of approximately 385,000 people and directly employs approximately 13,000 staff.

One of the biggest challenges for Siobhan in her post has been a budget reduction of 25% which has created a culture of ‘delivering more for less’, or ‘continuous improvement’ and has driven the need to use technology to improve efficiency across the Trust. Another challenge has been the creation of a single IT infrastructure across the Trust, to improve mobile working, access to information and more importantly, enable multi-disciplinary working.

Siobhan has a first class honours degree in Business Studies and a Post Graduate diploma in Health & Social Care Management. She is a member of the Institute of Health Management (IHM); a member of the Association of Project Managers and she is also a Prince 2 Practitioner. Before taking up her current post, Siobhan held a range of non-IT related posts both in the public and private sectors.

Over the past 5 years, as well as harmonisation of the IT infrastructure and a range of existing information systems, Siobhan has led on a number of Trust-wide IM&T implementations, including PACs Radiology, digital dictation, electronic referrals, electronic discharge, privacy detection software.

At present, Siobhan is leading on the procurement of an integrated Community and Social Care information system.

Jane is Assistant Director of Informatics and IT Strategy at Heatherwood & Wexham Park Hospitals Foundation Trust, with responsibility for Information & Performance, Data Assurance, Clinical Coding and Knowledge Services. She has previously headed up teams delivering Business Development, Contracting, Clinical Governance, Research and Clinical Audit at various points in her career. After graduating from University College London she worked as a research scientist before joining the NHS in 1995. Throughout her working life she has been involved in data and transforming it into knowledge. She is passionate about improving the information and data quality to enable clinical and management staff to have the information they need to manage their business efficiently and effectively with the ultimate aim of providing the best care for patients.

Paul is an ex-GP and Chief Executive of Patient Opinion a website where patients, service users, carers and staff can share their stories of care across the UK. Patient Opinion is a not-for-profit social enterprise based in Sheffield.

In 2010 Channel 4 invested in Patient Opinion. Patient Opinion also works closely with NHS Choices to pool and re-publish each others patient stories.

Paul has published widely including in the BMJ, British Journal of General Practice and the Guardian and the Independent.

Simon Hudson is an entrepreneur and health sector specialist. He formed Cloud2 in 2008 following a rich career in the international medical device industry and the IT industry. Simon’s background encompasses quality assurance, medical device development, international training, business intelligence and international marketing and health related information and technology.

Simon created Cloud2, with colleague and co-director, Taran Sohal, in response to an evident need the NHS has for a partner committed to helping them deliver successful projects based on Microsoft SharePoint.

Simon has had a rich career spanning both the UK and the international health industry, with roles that have included quality system auditing, medical device development, international training (advanced wound management) and international marketing. In 2000 he co-founded a software-based Clinical Outcomes measurement start-up in the US. Upon joining ioko in 2004 he created the Carelink division and, as General Manager, drove it to become a multi-million pound business in its own right. The aspirations for Cloud2 are both broader and higher.

Simon has had articles and editorials published in a variety of knowledge management, clinical benchmarking and health journals and has been a presenter at clinical, KM and media conferences. He holds two patents relating to medical devices. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Physical Science and a PGCE in Physics and Chemistry from the University of Hull.

Simon is passionate about rather too many things, including science, music (he plays guitar with both a rock and folk/acoustic bands), classic cars, skiing, the health sector, technology and, by no means least, his family.

Barry has close to 20 years experience in providing telemetry/M2M (machine-to-machine) communications solutions to the market. Founding Comtech M2M in the early nineties to specialise in this upcoming market, the company was later sold to Lord Alan Sugar in 2008 as the foundation for Amscreen the digital signage company. The M2M arm of Amscreen was then acquired by Brulines plc (later renamed Vianet Group plc). Barry is now responsible for all the technology for the Vianet Group.

Lead GP (3 days/week) in Sedbergh, a busy rural Yorkshire Dales GP Practice. Started with health informatics in 2007, appointed Clinical Lead Informatics NHS Cumbria 2010. Currently working across most healthcare sectors in Cumbria, being Senior Responsible Officer for Primary Care IM&T Projects, the MIG Interoperability Programme and currently acting Head of Informatics and Networks for the CCG. Also co-ordinating ICT strategy for all NHS providers in Cumbria. Developing a national voice on Health Informatics including membership of the national CCIO Advisory Panel. William is otherwise active in Rescue Medicine, along with being Team Doctor Swaledale Mountain Rescue Team.

Peter Manser is Head of IM&T; Initially working for many years in blue chip commercial companies, Peter has been in the NHS since 1989. Starting with the Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea when it was a cardio-thoracic Special Health Authority, he moved to Enfield Community Care Trust in 1983. In 2000 Peter, joined Redbridge &Waltham Forest Health Informatics Service supporting North East London Mental Health Trust (NEL MHT). In November 2004 Peter was appointed as Associate Director of Informatics to lead the informatics service within NEL MHT.

Since 2007 he has been Head of IM&T with East of England Specialised Commissioning Group. Again this role has involved a significant amount of development of systems and services in specialist highly technical area of healthcare commissioning. Since June 2012 Peter has been seconded to the Strategic Technical Support Team as National Enterprise Architect. This role is to ensure that the necessary informatics architecture is in place for the delivery of NHS CB responsibility from April 2013. Working closely with clinicians, service users and other managers within Clinical Reference Teams to identify future data and system requirements and seek to establish national data flows, provision of the necessary platforms and governance/security assurances, for service planning, management and and delivery of quality care together with performance reporting.

During his career within the NHS Peter has been involved with many different aspects of health informatics including being involved with the early work on the Mental Health Minimum Data Set, working with the Connecting for Health Knowledge Worker toolset and with Microsoft Corp on electronic collaboration within the NHS.

In 2005 Peter became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and is also a member of The British Computer Society and the Records Management Society.

Charlie McCay is working with Laitek Ltd to extend the use of their world class PACS migration services in the UK.

For ten years Charlie has been providing technical leadership to national and international healthcare interoperability projects. He has just completed three years as chair of the HL7 International Technical Steering Committee and is a past chair of HL7UK. He is responsible for the UK input to ISO and CEN on Healthcare Information Models at the British Standards Institute. Charlie also represents HL7 on the SemanticHealthNet project in Europe. He was part of the core team that defined the GP2GP message structure for England. He defined the messaging services for the English Retinal Screening Program and also works with the Gold Standards Framework on End of Life Care. Charlie has a strong grasp of both the strategic and pragmatic aspects of healthcare interoperability.

Before this he spent ten years developing and supporting clinical applications for GPs and hospital departmental systems, and has a good understanding of the wider practicalities of deploying and maintaining clinical information systems and transferring information between them.

Dr Peter Murray, PhD, RN, MSc, CertEd, FBCS CITP has nearly 30 years health experience, starting as a coronary care nurse before moving into education and health/nursing informatics, in which field he has been actively involved internationally for 15 years. He is currently CEO of IMIA, the International Medical Informatics Association and remains actively involved in teaching health informatics at post graduate level, most recently at Walter Sisulu University, South Africa.

He has an MSc in Nursing and a PhD in nursing informatics and educational technology, and is a qualified nurse teacher. His current interests include free/libre and open source software, and the use of Web 2.0 technologies, in particular for virtual engagement with health informatics events. He has over 60 peer-reviewed publications and has presented over 110 papers, tutorials, workshops and panels at national and international events.

Robert O’Brien is Managing Director for Metacompliance, a fast growing UK software company. Metacompliance automates policy management by reducing risk and audit problems by using policy management to create legally valid proof of employees having seen, understood and agreed to policies and surveys. Being involved at a detailed level in the software Innovation is big motivation.

Robert has founded a number of Technology companies. For the ten years prior to Metacompliance he developed Intertech Limited into very successful Citrix Platinum reseller, before selling the company to Maxima PLC in 2006.

He has a keen interest in Cyber Security and the changing role of technology in people’s daily lives and behaviors. The blurring of the lines between technology being a personal tool or a toy is an area of particular focus.

Robert was an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Finalist in 2001. He believes that Britain has to rediscover its commercial roots that are based on an entrepreneurial and common sense approach to doing business. He is passionate about the need for a UK based software sector, particularly in the area of IT Security and Cloud.

Ninjeri Pandit joined the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM) in 2009 to establish and manage a strategic and systematic approach for collecting patient experience feedback across the Trust. She went on to manage the development and implementation of the eMPOWERMENT programme, a partnership between SLaM and primary to introduce electronic personal health records (ePHR) to service users. The ePHR system, myhealthlocker, aims to increase transparency and access to meaningful information to enable service users to become active participants in their care. Ninjeri’s role has also focussed on the development of strategic informatics programmes to promote translational research.

Ninjeri is currently on secondment to the Greater London Authority directing London Connect, the information transparency workstream of the London Health Improvement Board. London Connect seeks to engage the capital’s community to meaningfully use information to improve care experiences and outcomes. Ninjeri holds an MSc in Health, Community and Development from the London School of Economics.

John has 35 years NHS experience, with a degree in Microbiology. He worked in Para Medical services for several years covering Microbiology and Haematology, then moved to work in Cancer research before moving into Information Management in the NHS in the 1990's, before progressing to Director of informatics at Walsall and Wolverhampton PCTs. John moved to Worcestershire as Director of ICT in 2004 and managed the strategy and implementation of all ICT projects across 3 Acute Hospitals, The Worcester health care trust and primary care and NHS Worcestershire. He was shortlisted for Government Computing IT Innovator of the Year – 2010. John prepared the trust for the future by ensuring the integration of IT services can be introduced when they are in demand. John also won the E-health insider IT champion of the year and just after moving to Dudley group of hospitals won the guardian and virgin media most innovative public sector CIO in 2012.

Anne is the Scottish Centre for Telehealth and Telecare (SCTT) clinical lead for cardiac and stroke and programme lead for planned care. Anne is an integral part of the SCTT - she led the Scottish Telestroke Programme, shortlisted for the EHI awards in 2011 and developed the Telestroke TIA project that won the Scottish Health Award for Improvement and Innovation in 2008, she also managed the original team that developed pulmonary tele rehabilitation classes in Scotland. Anne has a clinical background as a nurse specialist and tutor. She undertook a management and leadership degree leading to varied experience in operational health management, clinical service redesign, capital-planning, project and programme management within NHS Scotland before taking on the national role with the SCTT in 2007. In 2010 the SCTT became part of NHS 24, this union with the health board responsible for delivery of remote healthcare nationally, has and will provide many opportunities for improving access to safe, effective, quality healthcare via telehealth and telecare, which Anne is privileged to be part of.

Hashim Reza qualified MB BS in 1982 and MRCPsych in 1989. He was appointed to an academic post at the Aga Khan University, Pakistan for 7 years before returning to the NHS in 1997. Besides his clinical duties in different clinical teams in general psychiatry, he has held management responsibilities including the post of Clinical Director for Bromley Mental Health Services (2007-2010). He has been the clinical lead for the development and implement of the electronic Care Records Service in London. This work has been recognised through E-Health Insider award for excellence in major healthcare IT development in October 2010 for improving patient care using the RiO MH EPR system. He was appointed to the role of CCIO in Oxleas in 2011.

Will Smart is Director of IM&T at the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust. This Board level position is responsible for the delivery of IT, Information and Analytics and Performance Management services to the Trust. Starting his career at St. Mary’s in 1991, Will has held a number of senior IT and Informatics roles within the NHS, and prior to joining the Royal Free last year had consulted widely in the UK public sector. His areas of interest and expertise are: Reporting and Analytics, IT service management and delivery and large-scale outsourcing and contract management. Will is currently working towards a Phd at Royal Holloway University of London focussing on the Business Value of IT.

Taran Sohal is an entrepreneur, with involvement in several health sector companies.

His career has including working in India as well as the UK, with roles that have included the marketing and sales of enterprise software for accounting, records management and enterprise collaboration.

In 2000 he joined ioko in a software sales role and from the launch of Microsoft SharePoint in 2001 developed a keen interest in its potential to deliver business value with implementations across multiple sectors including health, manufacturing and mining.

Taran created Cloud2 in 2008, with colleague and co-director, Simon Hudson, to deliver successful SharePoint.

Taran has a passion for business and the opportunities it can provide for wealth creation and employment both in the UK and beyond. His other business interests include a residential care home and a wholesale organic nutrition business in India.

Outside work, Taran is married with 2 young boys at primary school in Bradford. He sits on the Parent Council at the school and on the board at SYCS (Sikh Youth and Community Services)

Taran holds a B.Soc.Sc. (Hons, 2:1) in Money, Banking and Finance from the University of Birmingham.

Tony Tomkys has 28 years of knowledge and experience in the IT industry with a commitment to long-term, value added, strategic partnerships with customers. As Director of Sales, EMEA for BridgeHead Software, Tony is helping hospitals across the UK and throughout Europe with their healthcare data and storage management initiatives – from back up and disaster recovery projects through to helping the NHS implement a vendor neutral archive for radiology PACS images and data.

Tony has represented a number of respected IT organisations over the years. Most recently, he enjoyed success as the Business Director for Public Sector at Commvault. Prior to that, Tony has worked with organisations such as Steria, Morse, HP, Unisys and Apple.

Having originally worked in biotech and NHS management before moving into healthcare consultancy, Peter has worked closely with a wide range of clinical and non-clinical stakeholders, having led service redesign and performance improvement work in a number of health and social care economies, across a broad range of commissioner and provider clients.

Peter has worked extensively within and beyond the traditional boundaries of health (across the health-social care interface) with local authorities, commissioners and providers.

Peter’s experience includes facilitating the implementation of out of hospital programmes, including designing innovative, cost effective, technology-enabled care models based on monitoring and supporting patients at home for longer, to prevent unnecessary system-wide use of health and social care resources.