Meet the 2016 CIO of the year

National Blood Authority's chief information officer Peter O'Halloran has taken out the top honour at the fourth annual iTnews Benchmark Awards, being crowned CIO of the year for 2016.

Peter O'Halloran

O'Halloran was presented his trophy at the Benchmark Awards gala dinner at Melbourne's Grand Hyatt. He also took out top spot in the healthcare category.

The Benchmark Awards are held annually at the CIO Strategy Summit and recognise Australia’s outstanding IT professionals, as judged by the iTnews panel and fellow CIOs.

This year boasted a highly competitive field of finalists, featuring some of Australia's largest organisations and IT shops, shortlisted from the largest crop of Benchmark Awards entries to date.

O'Halloran - who also won the healthcare category at last year's Benchmark Awards - shone through for his campaign to create a single, real-time view of the nation's critical blood stores.

After completing a proof of concept, O'Halloran and team are speedily linking up all of Australia's hospital pathology labs with the National Blood Authority’s central BloodNet database using real-time APIs.

Once every hospital pathology lab has signed up, the authority will have real-time visibility of inventory and the status of perishable blood products across the national blood supply, giving it much greater ability to respond to disasters and crises.

"Thanks and congratulations to everyone here who turned up for the awards or to deliver a panel discussion; the amount of innovation and change out there is truly amazing," O'Halloran said.

"Looking at some of the prizes and the winners tonight, I think Australian IT is set up very well, and I would like to thank all the winners tonight."