New board announced as health IT sector grows

14th December 2015

New board announced as health IT sector grows

The NZ Health IT Cluster (NZHIT) has announced a new board following a 25 per cent increase in the organisation’s membership in the last year.

The new board was confirmed following elections by members at its recent annual general meeting and is made up of four women and three men.

Scott Arrol, CEO of NZHIT, says the group provides very strong representation of health IT leaders and organisations, and is committed to the long-term future of healthcare in this country.

“Technology is integral across the whole of healthcare, it’s a key enabler to support the delivery of services and supports the provision of better health outcomes for all New Zealanders,” he says.

“Our growing membership reflects the increasing importance of health IT in New Zealand as a way of maintaining and improving standards in the face of major issues including an ageing population and growing rates of obesity and diabetes.

“I am delighted about the make-up of our new board and the members’ enthusiasm to provide strong governance and strategic direction for our organisation and the health IT sector as a whole,” he says.

The members of the NZ Health IT Cluster (NZHIT) board are:

- Jodi Mitchell, Chair of NZHIT and CEO of SimplHealth

- Kate Rhind, Deputy Chair NZHIT and Managing Director for Healthpoint

- David Tse, Business Manager – Health, Energy & Local Government for Spark Digital

- Diana Siew, National Cluster Manager Medical Device Technology & Accelerator Services for Callaghan Innovations

- Kate Reid, Director of Strategy & Partnerships NZ for Orion Health

- David Worth, NZ Healthcare Lead for IBM New Zealand

- Sinclair Hughes, CEO of Incisive Medical Systems (Co-Opted Board Member)

Jodi Mitchell, Chair NZHIT, says that she is excited by the skills and energy of the newly elected Board:

“We have a lot to achieve in the coming 2-3 years especially with our work providing input and feedback to the Ministry of Health’s Strategy review as well as working with the National Health IT Board on key areas of its programme of work for 2016-2020.

“Around the world, information technology is transforming healthcare by using information, data and automation to bring efficiencies and save costs where possible,” she says.

“As a small country we have the opportunity to create the best healthcare system in the world, on the back of one that’s very good already, and information technology is going to play a huge role in making this happen. These are exciting times and our new board is looking forward to the challenge,” she says.

ENDS

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