CCIO Industry Network launches this week

Digital Health Intelligence Limited is launching a CCIO Industry Network to bring together clinical IT and information leaders from across the healthcare IT industry.

The network will launch with a free webinar tomorrow (Friday, 12 June) and will promote the safe and effective use of IT within health and social care.

It is the third network launched by Digital Health, which already supports the CCIO Leaders Network for chief clinical information officers and the Health CIO Network for chief information officers and other senior figures.

Jon Hoeksma, chief executive and editor of Digital Health, said the CCIO Industry Network will be a “sister network” to the two existing programmes. However, it will have its own robust set of governance arrangements, terms of reference and set of objectives.

Hoeksma added that the idea for the network came up a year ago, at the CCIO Leaders Network annual summer school. He said attendees identified that “for many suppliers in the UK health IT market, the clinical adviser is often isolated.”

“Once you get outside the biggest companies, there tends to be only a single person who is often part-time,” he said, arguing that the new network would provide them with professional support and ideas.

The CCIO Industry Network will operate an “open, non-competitive environment” with a shared common goal to improve patient safety.

Membership is free and the network is open to anyone who provides advice on clinical matters to suppliers or who works with suppliers as a clinician.

The group’s first chair is Giulio Bognolo, chief medical officer of Cerner Europe, who is part of a small advisory board helping to guide the format and agenda of the network.

He said: "Several months ago, we realised that much was being done, in part with our guidance, around the role of CCIOs in the NHS, but there wasn’t a clear group of clinical leaders from the health IT industry that worked together, and with other clinical leaders, to help inform and advance dialogue around key topics such as: safety, standards, and the benefits of clinical transformation underpinned by IT.

“We realised we had the skills and knowledge that could guide clinical organisations, the NHS and other large groups involved in healthcare towards a better and safer use of technology. We also realised that we could and should support smaller companies that may not have consistent clinical support to deliver safe IT products to improve the quality and efficiency of care.”

Bognolo is one of the presenters at the webinar at 12.30pm to officially launch the network and give people the opportunity to find out more. Other presenters include Jenny Dean, medical director of Harris Healthcare Solutions, and Iain Mackenzie, physician executive for InterSystems UK.

Future network events include a clinical safety workshop, which will take place at the national CCIO congress in the autumn.