Speakers

Alice Ainsworth, Deputy Director for Adult Social Care Technology Policy, Department for Health and Social Care
Alice Ainsworth heads up the Government’s digitising social care programme which supports care providers to make best use of technology.

Dr Margaret Whoriskey, Head of Technology Enabled Care and Digital Healthcare Innovation, Scottish Government
Dr Margaret Whoriskey is responsible for the national cross sector TEC Programme in partnership with the NHS, local government, third, housing and independent sector providers which is aiming to support at scale deployment in Scotland. This is centred around the citizen, and focuses on improving access to services by using digital technologies, including the ability to self-manage remotely. She leads the national Digital Health and Care Fest in Scotland, proving a national and international focus to developments in Scotland and is active in  the European arena and is responsible for the International Engagement Team for digital health and care.

Craig Hughes, Head of Data, Stockport Council
Craig Hughes is passionate about data and how it can help organisations change, improve and innovate. He has many years experience as a data leader, focussing on secure and ethical use of data, extracting maximum value including insight generation, automation, system development and the application of data science to solve business challenges. The council has recently announced its plan to work on a digital patient journey management system aimed at overcoming blockages to hospital discharges for those waiting to go into adult social care.

Sarah Rank, Assistant Director, Business and Technology (Adult Social Services), Norfolk County Council
Sarah Rank is currently responsible for the delivery of the Adults technology enabled transformation programme. Sarah also co-chairs the Eastern region digital network. 

Sam Bassett, Digital Care and Innovation Lead, Suffolk County Council
Sam Bassett is currently responsible for Suffolk's Digital Care portfolio and looking to promote a shift in how care technologies are perceived and used across the sector.

Dr Alec Price-Forbes, Consultant Rheumatologist at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust and Chief Clinical Information Officer for Coventry and Warwickshire Health and Care Partnership ICS

Eddie Olla, Chief Digital Officer, NHS Warwickshire and Coventry ICB

Declan Hadley, Healthcare Development Lead, Cisco UKI 
Prior to joining Cisco in April 2021, Declan Hadley worked in the NHS for over thirty years.  He started his career as a psychiatric nurse, moving quickly into information management in the 1990s.  In 2001, he was appointed as health informatics director at Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust, where he led on the development of innovative mobile solutions and new clinical applications to support an agile workforce.  More recently, Declan has acted as Programme Director for the North West Coast Connected Health Cities Programme and Digital Associate for the Innovation Agency North West Coast.  From 2014, Declan led on the development and delivery of a digital health strategy for Lancashire & South Cumbria Integrated Care System.  Declan has a keen interest in consumer-centric technology and the Internet of Things, exploring how they can be used to empower people and enable them to manage aspects of their care whilst living in their own homes.

Sam Hall, Director of Primary, Community Care and Mental Health Digital Services, Digital Health & Care Wales  
Sam Hall joined Digital Health and Care Wales from the Welsh Local Government Association where she held the position of the Chief Digital Officer for Wales, the first role of its kind in Wales. She brings with her over 30 years’ experience in public sector, both in central and local government and has delivered projects with the Government Digital Service and was Chief Digital Officer for The Office for National Statistics, before focussing on the 2021 Census system build. Taking the decision to leave the Civil Service, she made the move to local government, becoming the Chief Information Officer and Head of IT and Digital at Birmingham City council and led the work during COVID which enabled the council to continue to work remotely and set up a team to make better use of data which helped the council support the most vulnerable during this time.

Connie Hutchins, Senior Category Lead, Tech Pillar, Crown Commercial Service
Connie Hutchins joined CCS in late 2019, coming from a technology background spanning 20+ years primarily within the NHS. Since joining she has led on a number of key initiatives including the delivery of the Technology Services 3 agreement and is currently supporting strategic thinking on the delivery of health technology within CCS.

Jonathan Cameron, Deputy Director for Digital and Health and Care, Scottish Government
Jonathan Cameron has overall responsibility for the Digital Health and Care Strategy and has a key focus on data, innovation and scale up of new systems that support health and care in Scotland. Prior to joining Scottish Government, in November 2019, he held a number of NHS Scotland IT and data roles. Jonathan has delivered several complex eHealth and Digital project and programmes, including the Key Information Summary (KIS) system. He has been a CivTech challenge sponsor for the first three years of the programme and innovation has been a major focus throughout his career.

Gary McAllister, Chief Technology Officer, NHS London
Gary McAllister is the Chief Technology Officer for the NHS London Region and is responsible for the OneLondon programme – an award winning Shared Care Record programme. Gary has spent over 20 years working in the healthcare industry, previously the Chief Technology Officer at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust. Gary has an interest in technology, health policy and system level transformation and is a graduate of the Digital Leadership Academy.

Rosemary Kay, Project Director, Liverpool 5G Create - Connecting Health and Social Care
Rosemary Kay began her career as a programmer. She worked at Marconi Secure Systems as Operations Manager, overseeing the design, development and manufacture of high grade communications devices. She’s supported local small business and public sector organisations for over a decade and leads the eHealth Cluster for Liverpool City Region which facilitates collaboration and partnership between technology SMEs and health and social care organisations. 

Leonardo Tantari, Chief Digital Information Officer, NHS (Leeds) West Yorkshire ICB and Leeds City Council
Leonardo Tantari has been in post for over two years, bringing with him vast experience of working at senior leadership level in global companies such as Experian, Walgreens (Boots) and Travelex. He is accomplished at delivering solutions that drive change and transform services. Leonardo leads complex and diverse digital teams that ensures that no one is left behind within the city with successful digital inclusion and integration programmes, staff training and development, whilst keeping a very keen eye on the finances. Leonardo has been instrumental in ensuring both Leeds City Council and the NHS in Leeds transform using data and digital as the driving force to integrate health and care to improve the lives of the people of Leeds.