ADHA seeking chief digital officer

The Australian Digital Health Agency has commenced public recruitment for a chief digital officer (CDO) role, which has been vacant since August.

The agency’s CTO Dr Malcolm described the job as a “a rare opportunity to shape the national digital health agenda”.

In its job ad, the agency said it seeks a leader for the “the creative, multi-disciplinary digital solutions division”, drawing on its “collaborative capabilities to shape digital health for Australia.”

The job reports to the CEO and is part of the senior executive committee.

ADHA's former CDO Steven Issa was there for almost four years before resigning. Holger Kaufmann has been acting in the CDO role since Issa’s departure.

Issa oversaw digital strategy at a time when the agency saw considerable growth in demand for digital services.

A spokesperson for the agency creditted Issa as having led “a number of important initiatives such as: enhancements to My Health Record to support Australians during the Covid-19 pandemic; mobilisation of HIPS Mobile and Clinician Vaccine Integrated Platform (CVIP); development of the MyHealthRecord mobile app; and delivery of the interoperability plan, which will guide the connection of Australia’s healthcare system, improving the delivery of safe, efficient and quality healthcare.”

Recruitment for Issa’s replacement closes on November 23.

The spokesperson added that the MyHealthRecord mobile app is slated for public release "around the first quarter of the 2023 calendar year."

“Increased demand for My Health Record has been met with improvements in functionality and unprecedented information going into the record," the spokesperson said.