Scottish Government to create chief clinical information officer role

Doctor performing test - Image credit: unknown

The Scottish Government is to create a new role of chief clinical information officer.

Health Secretary Shona Robison announced the creation of the new senior digital health role at Holyrood’s Digital Health and Social Care conference this morning.

Robison said leadership would be the key to successful implementation of the Scottish Government’s health and social care strategy, which will be published later this year.

RELATED CONTENT

When are the Scottish Government's health and sports strategies due?

Health professionals call for shared patient records

Andy Murray becomes digital health ambassador

She said: “As we move towards a digital first approach to service delivery, I see leadership as the key to the successful implementation of the new digital health and social care strategy and we’ll be looking to see how we can ignite and harness the enthusiasm of clinicians and other professionals for digital transformation.

“And to underline the importance of this, I hereby formally announce that that Scottish Government will be looking to shortly recruit a national chief clinical information officer to work closely with civil servants as well as health and care professionals throughout Scotland to provide that essential leadership in digital.”

A chief clinical information officer is someone with clinical experience who can lead on implementing digital technology from the point of view of improving patient care and outcomes.

NHS England appointed a chief clinical information officer for the first time in July 2016.