AIIA WA Digital Health Strategy 2020-2030 – working with industry’

Deputy Premier; Minister for Health; Mental Health

Hon. Roger Cook MLA is the Deputy Premier of Western Australia, Minister for Health and Mental Health. With carriage of these two key portfolios his policies touch the lives of all West Australians.

He is responsible for over 40,000 employees in the public health sector and an annual budget of $9.1 billion.

Whether it is providing free meningococcal vaccines for children, improving community mental health services or driving future investment in health research, Minister Cook is driven to improve the health and wellbeing of every person in Western Australia.

Other achievements include finally resolving the lead in the water issues and opening Perth Children’s Hospital, driving key components of the state’s Methamphetamine Action Plan and delivering the Sustainable Health Review.

Roger is currently leading the government bill to introduce Voluntary Assisted Dying in Western Australia to ensure terminally ill people who are suffering can die with dignity.

Roger has been a member of the Legislative Assembly of Western Australia since 2008, representing the seat of Kwinana.

Prior to entering politics Roger studied Arts and Public Administration at Murdoch University before completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Public Relations and a Master of Business Administration at Curtin University.

Roger Cook was born and raised in Western Australia. He lives with his wife Carly in Wellard, and has two adult children.

Director General of Western Australia’s Department of Health

Dr David (Russ) Russell-Weisz is the Director General of the Western Australia’s Department of Health, a position he has held since August 2015.

Dr Russell-Weisz graduated as a doctor in Scotland but has spent the best part of his professional life in Western Australia.

After moving to Australia in 1993, he joined the Royal Flying Doctor Service in Broken Hill, and then moved to WA, where, as a procedural General Practitioner and then Director of Medical Services, he served communities in regional and remote parts of North West WA. The work gave him a special appreciation of the unique challenges faced by those living and delivering services in rural/remote parts of Western Australia.

Later, as Chief Executive of the North Metropolitan Health Service, he led the billion dollar redevelopment of the QEII Medical Centre while also overseeing the operations of three tertiary and three outer-metropolitan hospitals.

Prior to taking the helm of WA’s public health system, Dr Russell-Weisz led the commissioning of Fiona Stanley Hospital, which opened its doors to its first patients in late 2014.

As Director General, Dr Russell-Weisz has steered the public health system through a period of significant reform, which included the commissioning and opening of Perth Children’s Hospital, and embedding the new devolved governance arrangements which will ensure the State’s health services continue to respond locally to the growing needs of the WA community.

Assistant Director General – Clinical Excellence Division

James Williamson is Assistant Director General of the Western Australian Department of Health leading the Clinical Excellence Division. After graduating in medicine from Edinburgh University he completed his PhD at the Walter & Eliza Hall Institute before returning for post-doctoral training in stem cell biology and gene targeting. He then specialised in scleroderma and pulmonary hypertension, conducting the first human trial of an endothelin receptor antagonist in Sydney. In Perth he introduced acute medical units, established the WA Drug Evaluation Panel and was appointed Clinical Lead for the State eHealth Program and the Musculoskeletal Health Network. He has served the Royal Australasian College of Physicians as Chair of the Specialist Advisory Committee in General Medicine and member of the Committee for Physician Training. He is a member of NHMRC Council and is passionate about supporting health research and innovation in WA.

Chief Information Officer – Health Support Services

Holger Kaufmann joined Health Support Services in June 2018 as the Chief Information Officer, with nearly 20 years of experience in executive management roles, a strong commercial acumen and a proven track record in large and complex ICT environments. Most recently, Holger has been driving the digital transformation of the Western Australian public sector as Executive Director of the GovNext-ICT infrastructure reform program, working closely with Chief Information Officers and other senior stakeholders across the public and private sectors (including HSS). Prior to joining the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer, Holger was an executive team member of a national IT consultancy, and has held a number of senior management positions both locally and in Europe.

Executive Director Strategy, Policy and Planning – Western Australian Department of Health

Judith Stewart is the Executive Director Strategy, Policy and Planning at the Western Australian Department of Health. Judith is a healthcare specialist with over 18 years’ experience in a range of public and private sector roles in the UK and Australia. Judith has extensive experience of working in the NHS in the UK, including in advisory roles, operational roles and leading the strategic planning and delivery of complex Projects and Programs. Judith spent a number of years working in and with the UK National Program for IT and vendor-side leading EMR implementation and the deployment of electronic booking and referral systems.

Adjunct Professor , CBS – Australian Information Industries Association Ambassador

Warren has over 25 years at Managing Partner level with international firms Accenture, Deloitte and Price Waterhouse Coopers in Asia Pacific. He is a former Ministerial adviser to a Deputy Premier in economic development and he has been a long-time advocate and driver of ICT in this State for over 30 years and is an AIIA Ambassador for the ICT industry. He was the Minister for Health’s nominee on the Sustainable Health Review and was a driver of the digital health narrative around improving patient care delivery, enabling the workforce and driving a new digital health innovation and commercialisation industry. He was a co-founder of the Institute of the Future of Work focusing on STEM skills and recently co-authored a report on talent barriers to WA company growth.

He is currently driving a new initiative to engage Indo- Asia around digital health innovation and commercialisation and is a senior adviser to a small portfolio of the world largest MNC firms and is Deputy Chair of Alzheimer’s WA. He is particularly interested in how a digital health strategy needs to deliver value by engaging all industry participants, including private health and NFP care providers, driving ICT industry growth through local content, enabling new data sharing to support new patient pathways, and encouraging technology to support longer independent living and improve Aged Care services Warren holds an Adjunct Professorship at Curtin Business School, was former Chair of the School of Information Science and was a British Council Scholar in Information Science at London School of Economics.

Partner, Health Ageing & Human Services – KPMG

As a senior Partner in KPMG’s national health, ageing and human services practice Evan is a trusted advisor to a wide range of organisations in the Australian health system. He has worked nationally and internationally with Governments, as well as public, not-for-profit and private health care payers and providers.

Evan is also an integral part of KPMG’s global health leadership team, and coordinates our work across more than fifteen countries in the areas of digital transformation and data analytics in health care. He also leads our national capability for patient experience improvement and has published thought leadership on that topic, as well as on the way in which technology is disrupting healthcare delivery.

Evan has dedicated his career to the healthcare industry. Before joining KPMG, he held senior executive roles in the private hospital sector, the higher education sector, and in the NSW Health public system.

Having originally trained as an economist, Evan has postgraduate qualifications in Health Administration from the University of NSW and International Health Policy and Health Economics from the London School of Economics, where he graduated with distinction, winning the Brian Abel-Smith prize.