Cerner appoints BT’s Dr Whatling

Cerner has appointed Dr Justin Whatling from BT to lead its European healthcare transformation services as senior director strategic consulting.

Dr Whatling will leave his role as chief clinical officer at BT Health to lead Cerner’s European advisory practice, part of the company’s population health organisation led by Professor Matthew Swindells.

A statement from Cerner says he will be working with hospitals to “change processes and implement Cerner’s ‘lighthouse’ quality improvement solutions.”

“Dr Whatling will also work with commissioners and providers to deploy Cerner’s new ‘population health’ solutions; these drive quality and efficiency across whole health systems by applying integrated intelligent systems from big data analysis through to individual patient encounters,” it says.

Dr Whatling said Cerner has been at the forefront of “technology-led change management in healthcare” for a generation.

“I’m very much looking forward to my new role as senior director strategic consulting leading Cerner’s efforts to help transform healthcare across Europe, inside and outside of hospitals,” he said.

“We need to continue to change the way clinicians view technology from something that was the remit of their IT department to the key driver for safe and high quality care at reduced cost.”

Professor Swindells said Dr Whatling brings with him an “unrivalled wealth of both clinical and technological experience and expertise” and is a recognised senior leader within the health informatics sector.

A strong supporter of eHealth Insider’s chief clinical information officer campaign, Dr Whatling worked as a clinician in the NHS for nearly two years before moving into health informatics in late 2000. He has worked at BT since July 2006.

He is also a steering committee member of the Health and Care Infrastructure Research and Innovation Centre, non-executive director of the BMJ Publishing Group, and vice chair strategy and policy at BCS Health.