Movers and shakers: Global health expert Dr John Halamka joins Orion Health board

Plus, the new CIO at the Department of Corrections, and next role for ex-Samsung exec

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Dr John Halamka, International Healthcare Innovation professor at Harvard Medical School, has joined Orion Health as an independent director.

Halamka is also the chief information officer (CIO) at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network (NEHEN), as well as a practicing emergency physician.

“John is one of the pre-eminent thinkers in Healthcare Information Technology, having been a key advisor for 10 years to two US presidents, in addition to advising China, Japan, Canada, England and Sweden,” says Orion Health chair Andrew Ferrier.

He understands the unique opportunity that Orion Health has to enable the transformation of the global health sector through its open technology platform, says Ferrier, in a statement.

At BIDMC, Halamka is responsible for all clinical, financial, administrative, and academic information technology, serving 3000 doctors, 12,000 employees, and one million patients.

As chairman of NEHEN, Halamka oversees clinical and administrative data exchange among the insurers, healthcare providers, and patients in Massachusetts. He has authored five books on technology related issues, hundreds of articles and thousands of posts on the Geekdoctor blog.

Sean Mills is the new CIO at the Department of Corrections. Before this, he was head of IT service delivery at the Ministry of Social Development.

Verdon Kelliher has left Samsung as director of strategic innovation and government relations and will join Foundry Innovations in February.

Verdon Kelliher at the CIO roundtable on ‘the next phase of mobility’ in Wellington.

Duane Wilkins is now with Land Information New Zealand as SDI (Spatial Data Infrastructure) engagement lead.

Geoff Whitcher of the University of Auckland is one of 18 people globally to have won the inaugural 2016 Rhodes Trust Inspirational Educator Award, which highlights inspirational teaching.

Whitcher is widely recognised as a tireless champion for entrepreneurism. He has helped create a range of formal and extracurricular programmes at the University of Auckland designed to help New Zealand’s transition to a knowledge-based economy.

These programmes include Velocity, the country’s leading, student-driven entrepreneurship programme, launched as “Spark” in 2003; and Chiasma, a professional student-led organisation that creates links between academia and the wider science and technology industries.

Before he joined the university, Whitcher had enjoyed a lengthy career working for the Fletcher group and for Fletcher Challenge.

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