6. Joanna Smith

CIO, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust
Joanna Smith, CIO at Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust, describes her current priorities as consisting of skills, security and GDPR.
Speaking to Computing as part of its CIO Interview series, Smith said that it can be hard to attract the right IT talent.
"My biggest concern now is around skills shortages and skills capability," said Smith. "Here in London in the NHS it's quite challenging to attract and retain the best resources. We invest heavily in great new systems and technologies. It's really important that I maintain the ability to support them moving forward.
"It's important to have an understanding of our specialist systems though obviously we have clinical and patient administration systems, so it's about having people who understand how our clinicians need to work, and who get the importance of supporting our clinicians so they can deliver great care. But it's also about new technologies like Voice over IP, cloud, these sorts of things. It's important I have folk who are familiar with that.
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