NSW Heath appoints CIO for e-health, IT strategies

NSW Department of Health’s director of e-health and ICT strategy branch, Ian Rodgers.

The NSW Department of Health has appointed Ian Rodgers as director of its new e-health and ICT strategy branch.

Rodgers has CIO-level experience in IT strategy and governance across the public and private sectors. He will start in the new role on March 30.

The new position has been advertised since November last year.

Since October 2008, Rodgers worked as an executive program director for a significant Victorian government IT project involving the replacement of IT systems and associated business transformation.

One outcome was to deliver a “best practice registration and licensing service across a number of large government agencies for a broad range of licences and registration functions”, according to NSW Health.

The agencies involved included VicRoads, Victoria Police, Victorian Taxi Directorate, Marine Safety Victoria, and the State Revenue Office.

Prior to this role, Rodgers was CIO at the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne from 2004 to 2008 and CIO, general manager of network operations and COO at Primus Telecommunications from 1998 to 2004.

Rodgers spent 20 years with the Australian Defence Force (Army) and six years as general manager of IT with Tenix and Transfield before joining Primus.

According to NSW Health, Rodgers is “very much looking forward” to returning to health and he will play a key role in strengthening the department’s “e-health and ICT strategy and governance to position NSW Health at the forefront of health IT in Australia”.

In 2009 the NSW government committed $100 million over two years to the development of an e-health system to replace paper-based health records.

The NSW Healthelink project, which began about seven years ago was well received by clinicians.

A plethora of e-health systems across all levels of health care poses a challenge for many of the sector’s CIOs, but some are taking the opportunity to ride a new wave of innovativion.

Rodgers will report to Dr Tim Smyth, deputy director-general of the department’s health system quality, performance and innovation division.

In May last year Smyth said the state is continuing to develop its e-health programs and urged the public not to be overly concerned about the privacy implications of electronic health records.

NSW Health’s corporate head office is located in North Sydney.

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