The Chief Executive of one of the NHS’s largest hospitals will start a new role linking public sector digital, technology and data programmes across the local area.
Professor Dave Rosser, currently CEO of University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB), will take up the new post of Strategic Director for Digital Health & Care from January 2023.
To ensure that the reach goes beyond the Birmingham and Solihull health and care system the role will work with West Midlands Combined Authority, academic institutions, local authorities and the local health and care system.
The role will examine a range of interventions that can make a difference to the life of citizens and staff from how mobile technology can support people to book services online through to how organisations share data to support improvements in care. Using Birmingham as a pilot and linking into initiatives across the West Midlands Combined Authority, Birmingham City Council and Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council (SMBC) and the local universities this important role is crucial in delivering joined-up and sustainable services across the health system but also ensuring best practice is in place across a wider geographical area.
This new post will create a joined-up approach to how the public sector better uses technology and help to generate more inward investment into public sector technology programmes in the future.
Professor Rosser has already led UHB to become a recognised leader in using technology to support improvements in care, using digital imaging and artificial intelligence. For example, doctors at the hospital can now remotely identify whether patients with skin lesions need further investigation – leading to thousands of patients avoiding an unnecessary hospital appointment, freeing up specialists to spend their time with patients who most need their expertise.
But Professor Rosser says this example is the ‘tip of the iceberg’ in terms of what technology can do to support improved care. He said: “In healthcare alone there is so much more we can do using mobile technology and artificial intelligence to both help people avoid having to go to hospital unnecessarily and even keep them healthier in their own homes.
“The potential for what we can achieve by having more joined-up digital and technology programmes between healthcare and other public bodies is immense and I’m looking forward to getting to grips with those possibilities and developing a culture where digital is part of the way we do change.”
Harry Reilly, Interim Chair at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said:
“Dave was a compassionate doctor, is an inspirational leader and will be a big loss to the Trust. I would like to sincerely thank him for everything he has done for this Trust and our patients over the last 26 years – as doctor, as a medical director, as a CEO, as a colleague and as a friend.
“I am pleased though that he is following his long-term passion for transformation and will remain very much integral to health and care, Birmingham and beyond, in his new role.”
Cllr Ian Courts, leader of SMBC, Andy Street, Mayor of the West Midlands and Cllr Ian Ward, leader of Birmingham City Council have all supported the appointment.