NHS Digital Transformation 2025

Helen is Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning.

Helen's passion for improved patient safety is informed by personal family insight into the impact of unsafe care and the ineffectiveness of organisational responses to learn from error.

Helen is an experienced leader in organisational effectiveness and transformational change. She has held leadership roles in healthcare in the UK and the WHO, the National Patient Safety Agency, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Parliamentary Health Services Ombudsman and the Charity Commission.

Helen’s previous leadership roles in patient safety include, as Director of Operations of the National Patient Safety Agency, designing the first patient safety infrastructure and policy framework for the NHS in England, and Director of the National Reporting and Learning System. At the WHO, she held a range of roles, including partnership and patient safety programme management and executive lead of the global ‘Patients For Patient Safety’ programme.

George is an accomplished Senior Product and Business Development leader with over 25 years of experience in the computer software and healthcare industries. With a proven track record in Product Demonstration, Requirements Analysis, Agile Methodologies, and Healthcare Information Technology (HIT), George combines deep technical expertise with a passion for driving innovation in health and wellbeing.

With over 15 years’ NHS leadership experience, Lee has a wealth of operational experience in acute hospital settings through his roles at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust and Whittington Health as an Operations Manager.

Lee’s current role as a Head of Programmes for North Central London (NCL) ICB sees him lead on multiple collaborative programmes across NCL, which includes the implementation of the ICS wide collaborative staff bank.

Passionate about patient care, Lee uses his operational management experience to ensure his programmes are fit to deliver and have a positive outcome for patients and staff.

Chris has over seven years of NHS experience, five of which have been dedicated to Operational Management, giving him a deep understanding of Planned Care, Unplanned Care, and Community Services. His extensive experience has allowed him to significantly shape patient care delivery. Currently, he serves as Deputy DGM for Urgent Community Response Services at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, where he leads the development of pre-hospital services and manages the Virtual Ward initiative through the Hospital at Home Services. He is also involved in the strategic planning for his Directorate.

Additionally, Chris co-leads the Streaming and Redirection project at the front door of the Emergency Department (ED). In his previous role as Service Manager at SWB, he led operational efforts in SDEC, Acute Medicine, and Toxicology, focusing on pathway optimisation, length of stay reduction, workforce management, and the successful launch of a new SDEC Modular Build.

Helen is Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning.

Helen's passion for improved patient safety is informed by personal family insight into the impact of unsafe care and the ineffectiveness of organisational responses to learn from error.

Helen is an experienced leader in organisational effectiveness and transformational change. She has held leadership roles in healthcare in the UK and the WHO, the National Patient Safety Agency, Equality and Human Rights Commission, Parliamentary Health Services Ombudsman and the Charity Commission.

Helen’s previous leadership roles in patient safety include, as Director of Operations of the National Patient Safety Agency, designing the first patient safety infrastructure and policy framework for the NHS in England, and Director of the National Reporting and Learning System. At the WHO, she held a range of roles, including partnership and patient safety programme management and executive lead of the global ‘Patients For Patient Safety’ programme.

An Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner by background, Linda Vernon is Head of Digital Empowerment at Lancashire & South Cumbria Integrated Care Board.

Passionate about how technology can empower individuals, communities & our workforce to thrive, and the principles of user-centred design & co-production, Linda leads the digital citizen portfolio across Lancashire & South Cumbria, as well as the overarching digital and data strategy for the wider digital portfolio.  She also drives the digital, data and AI literacy agenda for the ICB, and is passionate about empowering our workforce and our citizens to access and benefit from digital tools.  She is an ‘upstreamist’ with a focus on how we can better support the prevention and population health agendas.

Linda enjoys climbing fells in the Lake District, playing guitar, ukulele and singing, and believes the health of the planet and her inhabitants are mutually dependant.

Lee is a fellow of the BCS, FEDPI Leading Practitioner, CHIME Certificated Health Chief Information Officer and an alumnus of the Digital Academy.

He has three decades of transformation and programme management experience. His first decade focused on UK military aircraft projects and for the last two decades he has focused on digital transformation in the NHS.  He is currently leading the Yorkshire & Humber Care Record development to provide interweave as an open platform for shared care record and population health systems.  He is also the CIO of Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust, Senior Responsible Owner for the mental health digital transformation of Humber & North Yorkshire ICS, member of the PRSB advisory board, member of the National ICS Digital Council and vice chair of Northern, Yorkshire and Humberside Digital and informatics Forum (NYHDIF).

Specialties: Digital Transformation, Portfolio, FHIR, Programme & Project Management, Agile, lean, PRINCE 2, MSP, CHCIO, FBCS, FEDIP.  Lee is likes to read, a keen runner and a children’s football coach and referee. 

Emeritus Professor W Angus Wallace

Chair, UK Digital Health and Care (2024>)

Founding Fellow Faculty of Clinical Informatics (FCI 2017-24)

Dean, Faculty of Health Informatics, Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (2000-2005)

Angus created the Faculty of Health Informatics at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 2000 and was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Health Informatics (FHI) from 2000 to 2005. During his appointment the Faculty introduced a “Master’s Degree in Health Informatics” initially with the RCSEd partnering with Bath University and later with Edinburgh University. During his 5-year appointment he also introduced the eLogbook for surgical training initially into Orthopaedic Surgery but later to cover all surgical training in the UK and Ireland. He was one of the 4-person team who developed the initial version of the eLogbook.

As Professor of Orthopaedic & Accident Surgery in Nottingham for 30 years his special interest was Shoulder & Elbow Surgery. He was one of 4 Founding Members of the British Elbow and Shoulder Society (BESS) set up in 1987, BESS President (2001-3) and President of the International Conference of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery (Edinburgh 2010). He has published over 350 research and academic papers on Orthopaedic Surgery, Shoulder and Elbow Surgery and Informatics (most peer-reviewed).

After the closure of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics, Angus and 5 colleagues conceived UK Digital Health and Care (UKDHC) that was set up in February 2024 and became active in April 2024. The first 6 months of UKDHC are summarised in “UK Digital Health and Care: The Phoenix arising from the ashes of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics”

Chris has over seven years of NHS experience, five of which have been dedicated to Operational Management, giving him a deep understanding of Planned Care, Unplanned Care, and Community Services. His extensive experience has allowed him to significantly shape patient care delivery. Currently, he serves as Deputy DGM for Urgent Community Response Services at Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust, where he leads the development of pre-hospital services and manages the Virtual Ward initiative through the Hospital at Home Services. He is also involved in the strategic planning for his Directorate.

Additionally, Chris co-leads the Streaming and Redirection project at the front door of the Emergency Department (ED). In his previous role as Service Manager at SWB, he led operational efforts in SDEC, Acute Medicine, and Toxicology, focusing on pathway optimisation, length of stay reduction, workforce management, and the successful launch of a new SDEC Modular Build.

Natalie is a dynamic and passionate leader dedicated to helping organizations redefine the way they work and achieve outstanding business results through transformative and disruptive technologies like automation and AI. As Vice President of Product Marketing at SS&C Blue Prism, she spearheads the positioning and messaging of the company’s extensive Enterprise AI portfolio, helping showcase its extensive value and differentiation to customers, analysts, media, and influencers.

With a proven track record in product, strategy, and channel marketing, Natalie has held leadership roles across marketing, strategy development, and IT consulting. An engaging storyteller, she brings creative thinking, collaborative leadership, and a focus on business outcomes, to translate complex technology into compelling stories.

Natalie holds an MBA from Henley Management College in the UK and a Bachelor of Commerce Honours from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa. Thriving at the intersection of technology and business, her passion for innovation, leadership, and driving business success is at the heart of her professional journey.

Debra is President of the Institute of Biomedical Science, Clinical Pathology Service Manager at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and a chartered scientist.

In her role as IBMS President, Debra is dedicated to the promotion, development and delivery of excellence in all aspects of biomedical science and is committed to providing the highest levels of service to patients and the public. In her ten years as an IBMS Council member, she has advocated, listened, represented and addressed the issues that are most important to IBMS membership at national, regional and local levels.

Debra became IBMS President in 2022 after a career covering 24 years working in clinical NHS laboratories. She is an advocate for workforce development, innovation in healthcare and continuous quality improvement.

Her current roles encompass the provision of leadership and management with accountability for the delivery of cost effective, high quality, safe and sustainable services across the Northumbria and the wider health economy. These responsibilities give her a strategic insight to deliver operational priorities both for her own Trust and those of National programmes.

Her professional activities include Lead Healthcare Scientist for NHCT, Pathology Network Operational Lead for North East and North Cumbria ICS, committee member for BSI ISO 15189 mirror committee and STEM ambassador.