Australian Digital Health Agency Board

A new Australian Digital Health Agency Board was announced on 3 April 2019. This page was updated on 24 April 2019 at the commencement of the new Board’s term.

• Download the latest Board Meeting 6 December 2018 - Board Papers

  

  Dr Elizabeth Deveny (Chair)

  Dr Elizabeth Deveny is currently the CEO of SEMPHN. Her emphasis on mutual respect and accountability of each and every staff member was a key factor in the nationally-recognised success of Bayside Medicare Local. Amongst her other current appointments she chairs the Southern Metropolitan Partnership which brings community, industry and local government together to provide the Victorian government advice about regional priorities.

  Dr Deveny is an experienced and well-respected senior executive with a strong commitment to providing sustainable health outcomes for all Australians, and a demonstrated ability to build and maintain positive, productive partnerships with key stakeholders and the broader community. She holds a Masters degree in vocational health education and a PhD in Medicine (clinical decision making), both from Melbourne University.

   

  

  Dr Zoran Bolevich

  Dr Zoran Bolevich is Chief Executive of eHealth NSW and Chief Information Officer of NSW Health. With a background in medicine and business administration, Dr Bolevich has worked in a number of senior health system management, health IT and data analytics leadership roles in Australia and New Zealand.

  Leading a team of more than 1,250 staff, Dr Bolevich is focusing on implementing the eHealth Strategy for NSW Health, streamlining governance of eHealth NSW’s key programs and activities, and developing a highly effective, customer-focused Health IT organisation. Dr Bolevich is passionate about improving the health system through meaningful and effective use of digital technologies, data analytics, research and innovation in partnership with patients, clinicians, health organisations, government and industry partners.

  Dr Bolevich holds a medical degree, a Master’s of Business Administration and is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators.

   

  

  A/Professor Learne Durrington

  A/Professor Learne Durrington is Chief Executive Officer, WA Primary Health Alliance which operates the three Primary Health Networks in Western Australia. Learne is known as a strategic leader and has a strong blend of skills and knowledge in both government and not for profit sectors. Key areas of executive leadership and responsibility include: Health, mental health and primary care – child protection and family services; and – disability and ageing. Her leadership has developed throughout her career in roles where the dynamic environment and changing policy environment contributed to her tenacity, resilience and ongoing learning.The notion of curiosity and collaboration have been vital to her achievements.

  A/Professor Durrington holds a Masters Degree in Public Policy, Bachelor Social Work (Hons), GAICD, FAIM and FACHSM.

   

  

  Dr Samuel Heard OAM

  Dr Samuel Heard OAM is primarily a rural general practitioner. He is currently the Medical Director of the Central Australian Aboriginal Congress, a 45 year old community controlled health service with 400 staff and 11 clinics across Central Australia. He is also the Medical Director of the Flinders University Regional Training Hub in Central Australia, where he is an Associate Professor. Dr Heard grew up in Naracoorte, South Australia, and studied medicine at Adelaide University, graduating in 1978. He completed his general practice training in London and was a part-time academic with London University.

  He returned to Darwin in 1992 working with Menzies School of Health Research but staying involved with European eHealth research projects. He developed the openEHR methodology with Thomas Beale, an engineer in the late 1990s.

  Key elements of this work have been adopted as an international (CEN and ISO) standard. Dr Heard has been a founding Fellow of the Australian College of Health Informatics and a founding director of the openEHR Foundation, with appointment as a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at University College London. He continues to be a director of Ocean Informatics, an Australian company that first implemented the openEHR methodology and provided the NT My eHealth Record software. He has worked extensively in education and standardisation, representing Australia in international eHealth standards development. He has been a delegate to CEN (European), ISO (International) and HL7 (International) standards organisations. Dr Heard worked on technical committees at IHTSDO (International terminology) as a UK nominee. Dr Heard holds an MBBS, DRCOG, MRCGP, FRACGP, FACH.

   

  

  Emma Hossack

  Emma Hossack is the CEO of the Medical Software Industry Association (MSIA). MSIA represents over 90 per cent of the providers of all the providers of health software in Australia. Over 91 per cent of all MBS/PBS transactions involve MSIA member software. Prior to this appointment in December 2018, Ms Hossack was the CEO of Extensia, a leading Australian supplier of software solutions and technologies for the health care sector. Additionally, Ms Hossack was the CEO of Binder, an information logistics platform used across all industry sectors. Extensia deployed a number of implementations of privacy by design shared electronic health record systems across Australia over the past decade. Extensia responded to the global need for systems to more effectively exchange information in aged care, chronic disease, indigenous care and disability sectors. Extensia achieved this through the deployment of interoperable flexible software. Extensia’s platform enables individual autonomy and dignity as well as improved health outcomes and efficiencies.

  Before acquiring Extensia, Ms Hossack practiced as a commercial lawyer as a Senior Associate with a national law firm based in Melbourne and in 2007 she completed a Master of Laws at Queensland University of Technology, majoring in consent models and privacy compliant sharing of health information.

  Now based in Brisbane, her other interests and positions include membership of HISA, Past President and current member of iappANZ (Australian and New Zealand International Association of Privacy Professionals) and representative on many jurisdictional and Commonwealth Government reference groups and boards. Ms Hossack holds a BA (University of Melbourne) and LLB (Hons) and LLM (Queensland University of Technology).

   

  

  Dr Chris McGowan

  Dr Chris McGowan is the Chief Executive of the South Australian Department of Health and Wellbeing. Dr McGowan is responsible to the Minister for Health and Wellbeing for the governance, leadership and management of the South Australian health system.

  Dr McGowan has a background expanding over 30 years in health and human service policy, management and leadership. He has led both public and private hospitals and held positions including Director of Health Reform, Director of Primary Health Care for the SA Government, and Director of Local Hospital Networks and Medicare Local/Primary Health Care networks.

  Prior to his current role, Dr McGowan served as CEO of Silver Chain Group (incorporating RDNS SA), where he was responsible for Australia’s largest community based palliative care service supporting over 2,500 patients per year in their last three months of life. Silver Chain also delivered extensive community based healthcare including a virtual hospital supporting approximately 1,100 patients at any one time who would otherwise be in acute hospital settings. The subject of Dr McGowan’s PhD was the public hospital cost of end-of-life care.

   

  

  Lyn McGrath

  Lyn McGrath is the Group Executive Retail Banking at the Bank of Queensland. She was recently the Executive General Manager, Wealth Advice at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA). Prior to this role Ms McGrath was Executive General Manager, Retail Sales leading the largest financial services distribution business in Australia for six years.

  Before joining the CBA in 2007, Ms McGrath held roles with St George in Retail Banking. She has extensive senior management experience in strategic and operational roles within the utilities and media industries and over 20 years’ experience in financial services.

  Ms McGrath is highly regarded for her transformational leadership, financial management experience and customer experience strategy thought leadership. She holds an MBA and BA from Macquarie University as well as a Dip PR (Hons) and is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.

  Ms McGrath is a Senior Fellow with FINSIA, a Fellow with the Australian Institute of Managers and Leaders and a member of Chief Executive Women Ltd. In 2012, she was named as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in Australia by the Australian Financial Review. Ms McGrath holds an MBA and BA from Macquarie University as well as a Dip PR (Hons).

   

  

  Dr Bennie Ng

  Dr Bennie Ng is the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Medical Association Western Australia (AMA WA). He commenced his career as a General Practitioner before becoming immersed in health policy and management.

  Dr Ng has extensive experience in providing advice to the Australian Government having been an adviser to the Minister of Health and later appointed as Head of Social Policy at the Office of the Prime Minister and had responsibilities across health and hospitals, aged care, disabilities/NDIS and indigenous affairs. He has held senior positions in strategy, services planning and general management across public and private hospital sectors including the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Healthscope Limited as well as the Hong Kong public hospital authority.

  Dr Ng has a Bachelor’s Degree in Medicine and Surgery and a Masters of Business Administration. He is a Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators and of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and is a Council member of the National Library of Australia.

   

  

  Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward

  Adjunct Professor Kylie Ward is the CEO of the ACN and is a renowned nursing workforce leader and a passionate CEO who has shaped ACN to become a prominent and influential professional organisation. Ms Ward leads ACN’s strong collective voice for the nursing profession, promoting nursing involvement in advocacy and policy development at the state and federal levels. She continues to drive nursing influence in broader professional issues to the next level, both locally and internationally.

  Ms Ward’s distinguished career spans almost three decades, during which time she has been awarded honorary Professorships from Monash University, Deakin University, University of Technology Sydney and Western Sydney University, as well as holding Executive Director of Nursing and Midwifery positions in the largest health services in NSW and Victoria.

  Ms Ward currently sits on the Aged Services Industry Reform Committee (IRC) and the Health Translation Advisory Committee (HTAC) of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). A highly accomplished CEO, Ms Ward has had responsibility for multi-million dollar budgets throughout her career. Her commitment and professionalism have been recognised through the multiple awards she has won throughout her career, including the 2017 ACT Telstra Business Woman of the Year Award for Social Purpose and Enterprise and 2018 Western Sydney University Prestigious Alumni’s Award for Professional Excellence. Ms Ward holds a M.Mgt, Dip.App.Sci (Nursing), Acute Care Cert., FACN, Wharton Fellow, MAICD.

   

  

  Professor Michael Woods

  Professor Michael Woods is a Professor of Health Economics at the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation at the University of Technology Sydney and Visiting Scholar at the Australian National University. He is a member of the Aged Care Financing Authority.

  Professor Woods’ research focus is on aged care reform, the delivery of palliative care, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the health workforce and the economics and financing of health systems. He draws on current and developing sources of health information and on novel data linkages to undertake health research and develop policy. In 2016 he was appointed as the Independent Reviewer for COAG Health Council Commissioned Review of the Workforce Education Accreditation System under National Registration and Accreditation Scheme.

  Professor Woods was previously Deputy Chairman of the Productivity Commission and Presiding Commissioner on over 20 national Inquiries. He led several landmark reports including Caring for Older Australians, Science and Innovation and Australia’s Health Workforce. Since 2001 he has held senior research and policy advisory roles in East and South East Asia, including as a Senior Expert to assist the OECD’s outreach to ASEAN (2016-17) and as a Staff Consultant to the World Bank, advising Vietnam on re-setting its Growth Strategy (2018–19).

  Previously Professor Woods was the Under Treasurer for the Australian Capital Territory, guiding the development of the ACT’s economic policy and fiscal management. Professor Woods holds a Bachelor of Arts (Hons), Australian National University and a Graduate Diploma in Education, Canberra College of Advanced Education 1974.