CIOs need to rethink roles

Chief information officers who are “too busy fixing the network” to address the business challenges of their organisations risk becoming obsolete, a leading business thinker has told EHI.

Ade McCormack, who writes regular columns for the FT and CIO Magazine on the changing role of the CIO, argues in an exclusive interview that there is a particularly urgent need for healthcare IT directors and managers to rethink their roles.

He argues that they need to show how they can help trusts meet pressures such as the ‘Nicholson Challenge’ to find billions of pounds of efficiency savings without cutting quality and to reach out to users with new ideas.

“CIOs who are unable to lead properly because they are too busy fixing the network risk becoming operationally obsolete,” he warns. “They must change from being reactive suppliers to demand creators.

“The new breed of smart, innovative CIO recognises that by building trust among users and stimulating them sufficiently, budget will be found.”

McCormack will be the keynote speaker at a new feature of EHI Live; EHI’s annual conference and exhibition, which takes place at the NEC in Birmingham from 5-6 November.

The first Health CIO Annual Conference has been set up to recognise the important and changing role of directors, assistant directors, and other senior leaders of IT, all of which are invited to register to attend the new event.

The conference will be chaired by James Thomas, director of ICT at University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who recently came top of the CIO 100 organised by CIO Magazine.

Further speakers will include Beverley Bryant, director of strategic systems and technology at NHS England and Di Millen, the development lead at NHS England.

McCormack emphasised that for CIOs and their organisations to thrive in the future, they will need to develop new skills.

“To be true architects of the future, they must immerse themselves in the clinical and business aspects of their organisation, as well as the IT,” he said.

“They must master consumerism, analytics, chronic disease management and other healthcare issues to understand where future challenges and opportunities lie.

“They must anticipate – not simply react to – the changes ahead and be ready to deal with the human aspects of transformation, as well as the technical.”

All of which may be a tall order, he admits. But one to which the new Health CIO Annual Conference should help them to rise.

Read the full interview with McCormack in Insight.

Ade McCormack will address the inaugural Health CIO Annual Conference at EHI Live 2013, which will be chaired by James Thomas, director of ICT at University College London Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, who recently came out top of the CIO 100 organised by CIO Magazine. This year’s conference is free for all visitors to attend.