Australian Digital Health Agency lands ACT Health's CIO

The Australian Digital Health Agency (ADHA) has chosen Peter O’Halloran, the long-time CIO of ACT Health, as its next chief digital officer.

Peter O'Halloran, ACT Health CIO and incoming ADHA CDO
Peter O'Halloran's LinkedIn profile

O’Halloran announced his appointment to ADHA in a LinkedIn post.

“Between now and February 27, I am madly trying to close out a few key deliverables at ACT Health”, O’Halloran wrote.

“After 17 years working in the public health system (13-plus of these as a chief information officer), I did seriously consider moving away from healthcare, but the lure of healthcare ICT was too strong.

"The ability to work every day with exceptional technologists, clinicians, public servants and healthcare consumers to improve health outcomes for citizens is too exhilarating to resist.”

The agency began recruiting for the CDO role in November 2022, when Steven Issa left.

One of O’Halloran’s first responsibilities will be overseeing the delivery of My Health Record as an iOS and Android app.

The agency has also created a director of enterprise architecture position to support its national infrastructure modernisation program.

That project kicked off in 2020 when the ADHA first moved to replace the Oracle API gateway behind My Health Record.

The director of enterprise architecture will work in the agency’s digital strategy division, and will “work with cutting edge technologies that support My Health Record and make a difference to the lives of all Australians, for example through the development of the national infrastructure modernisation program.”