Gen-i makes high level health sector appointment

Gen-i makes high level health sector appointment

Auckland 28 October 2010 - In a move underscoring its commitment to the health sector, Gen-i - a division of Telecom New Zealand - has appointed Jo-Ann Jacobson to the newly established role of Health Business Development Manager.

Ms Jacobson has for the past three years been the Chief Information Officer at the Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (HBDHB), an organisation with a turnover in excess of $400 million serving a population of 160,000.

Gen-i CEO, Chris Quin, says Ms Jacobson will deploy her significant health and ICT industry experience to lead Gen-i’s efforts to fulfill the health sector’s ambition to move to patient-centered models of care. Gen-i is also aiming to support the Government’s strategy to regionalise and nationalise information systems and move to single federated electronic health records by 2014.

“Our vision is to provide the health sector with cloud-based services that connect health organisations and provide access to clinical information anywhere, anytime. We’re working with a number of health providers and ICT partners to identify areas where we can deliver valuable technologies and services using our cloud capabilities,” said Quin.

Ms Jacobson says that health professionals are increasingly realising that ICT is key to reducing costs, creating efficiencies and providing improved health outcomes, and is thrilled that she is able to play a part in helping drive this forward for the New Zealand health sector.

“As an ICT provider to all of the DHBs and a number of private health care providers, Gen-i will continue to build on these relationships and leverage sector partnerships to provide managed, secure IT infrastructure, platform and application services,” said Jacobson. “We’re committed to supporting easier regional and national access to health information, by acting as an aggregator of services to support health business and communication needs.”

Ms Jacobson’s previous positions include: IT Manager and Information Manager with HBDHB; IT Service Manager with Air New Zealand; and commercial management roles with a large non-government organisation and an electrical engineering firm.

Ms Jacobson is based in Wellington.

ENDS

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