The advisory board comprises leading figures and senior executives from the healthcare sector:
- Simon Roberts, independent health consultant (NHS and private sector health), recent senior advisor NHS England System Transformation Group, NHS non-executive director
- Ruth Holland, deputy chief information officer at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust
- Andy Haynes, executive lead at Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Integrated Care System
- Gregg Holland, chief information officer at Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
- Paul Davies, independent consultant and managing director at Hilltop
- Mike Farrar, former chief executive of the NHS Confederation
The unpaid advisory board will help Dr Foster continue to develop a portfolio of products and services that address the day-to-day challenges faced by healthcare professionals, helping to enhance productivity, and improve clinical outcomes. The board will also drive Dr Foster’s growing influence in the sector and provide a balanced view on how it measures up against competitors.
Jason Harries, Dr Foster’s chief executive, said: “The formation of the new advisory board is an exciting move for Dr Foster and will allow us to continue to enhance our products and services so that healthcare organisations can better meet population health needs. We look forward to working closely with board members to engage with key issues and challenges and hope to drive real change in the healthcare sector.”
One area of initial focus will be population health management and the analytical insight that is needed for successful preventative care initiatives. An ageing population and a rise in chronic conditions represent two of the biggest challenges the NHS faces. Dr Foster believes that data is the starting point for understanding demand and planning successful intervention programmes, so it is looking to expand its population health analytics services.
The company has already developed a model to predict the risk of an emergency admission, and recently carried out population segmentation analysis for Bradford Clinical Commissioning Group to identify which patient cohorts would benefit from targeted intervention.
