Intelligent Automation Lead.  
Runs the Lancashire Teaching Hospital IA Centre of Excellence as part of One LSC hosted by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust.  Working for a better NHS. 

Andrew Conkie is the CEO of Red Star, a company specialising in digital healthcare solutions. With a background in software development and data science and extensive experience in the healthcare sector, he has led the development of innovative technologies to improve patient care and operational efficiency within the NHS. His expertise includes system integration, AI-driven automation, and workflow optimisation. 

With a career directing security solutions extending more than 50 years in police, government, and senior security & safety roles.

His skillset encompasses revitalising security services with innovative solutions, integrating technology, threat assessments, and development of strategic security masterplans. With decades of experience in crisis management, he is a key contributor to community protection and reputation management.

Previously served as Director of SafeGuarding Services at Heriot-Watt University, with a global remit for their five campuses worldwide. He is also a past Chairman of the Association of University Chief Security Officers (AUCSO). INTERSEC International Leader of the Year 2023.

Radko is a Systems Engineer at Juniper Networks and his area of expertise is at the AI Driven Enterprise solutions for Public and Private Sector customers across the UK. He has been with Juniper for just over three and a half years, and he brings over fifteen years of experience in the IT sector, having worked for finance organizations and various different Service Providers. Currently, he is focused on helping Major Managed Services Providers and Partners deliver AI Native Networking solutions to their customers. 

Greg is the Programme Director for the Digital Front Door Programme, leading on the delivery of the overall programme. Greg has delivered many national digital and transformation programmes across various sectors in Health and Care over 23 years in NHS Scotland. Greg is passionate about transformation and data to maximise benefits for the people of Scotland through use of health and care services. 

Kirstyn Nicholas has over 30 years’ experience working with NHS organisations and over 10 years focusing on delivering innovations within healthcare technology. Currently the Strategic Client Partner for Alcidion leading on the customer relationships within NHS Scotland she has extensive experience of supporting health boards through digital transformation. Alcidion is an innovative health informatics company with over 20 years’ experience in developing, deploying and supporting healthcare technology. We are committed to delivering solutions that align with clinical workflows.  

Billy has worked within NHS Tayside since 1995.  Initially within mental health and learning disabilities settings as a physiotherapy assistant before embarking on his nursing career in 2000.  He worked clinically within rehabilitation medicine before moving into orthopaedic nursing where he developed his career within that speciality and most recently held the role of Senior Charge nurse within orthopaedic trauma. He has a passion for patient safety and quality improvement which eventually led to him moving into his current role supporting NHS Tayside’s Patientrack project in September 2022.  This has seen all inpatient areas successfully moving a variety of clinical assessments to this digital system and experience the benefits that this system can achieve.

Darren is a highly experienced Project Implementation Manager with a proven track record of successfully delivering EHR/EPR systems and modular clinical solutions as an NHS customer and supplier. With 26 years of NHS experience, he started as a Pharmacy Technician at NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde before transitioning into service redesign and project management, delivering transformation projects such as the NHS Scotland Scan for Safety Program. Darren is passionate about proactive partnerships and realising benefits for health boards and patients. 

With over 8 years of service at NHS Fife, I hold corporate responsibility for Business and Resource, Digital Strategic delivery, and our Digital Strategy.  I am deeply passionate about leveraging digital technology to enhance our organisation. My commitment to collaboration ensures that our workforce is well-equipped to provide the highest quality healthcare to our patients, supported by digital solutions. Throughout my 20+ year career in the NHS, I have gained extensive experience at both local and national level. This has enabled me to drive positive digital transformation within Fife, ensuring our digital initiatives align with the needs of our community. 

Lorraine joined NHS Lanarkshire in 2003 as a CSW while studying Marketing and Accountancy at GCU.
She later joined the NHS Graduate Scheme for General Management in 2008 before taking up a post within NHSL Digital Team in 2012. She has been involved with several large-scale projects such as TrakCare Implementation, eCasenote and Covid 19 immunisations.  Within her current remit she oversees the Information Management Team and Health Records functions which includes Referral Management Service, also known as RMS, Child Health and Immunisations.  She is also a fellow of The Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh (RCPE). 

Christine McLaughlin CBE is Co-Director of Population Health in Scottish Government.  This role includes responsibility for oversight of Health and Care Reform and for Digital Health and Care. Christine has held a number of roles in Scottish Government Health & Care Directorates, including Director of Covid-19 Test & Protect, and Director of Health Finance. Christine began her career working in the NHS, where she held a number of senior finance roles.  She then spent 6 years in management consulting roles with PwC, KPMG and Capgemini, working with public sector clients on financial transformation.  Christine is a Chartered Public Finance Accountant and a Charity Trustee with Carnegie UK. 

Helen Puttick is the Scottish Health Correspondent for The Times. She has covered health news in Scotland for almost 20 years, working for The Herald before moving to The Times in 2017. She has been nominated for a number of awards and regularly appears as an expert commentator on broadcast media.

Professor Dominiczak is a world-leading cardiovascular scientist and clinical academic. Her major research interests include hypertension, cardiovascular genomics, and precision medicine. She has published extensively in top peer-reviewed journals (over 550 publications, a h-index of 123 according to Web of Science). Between 2010 and 2020 she was Vice-Principal and Head of the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences at the University of Glasgow. She was the driving force behind the fundraising, development and delivery of the University’s clinical academic campus at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where she led a triple helix partnership between academia, the NHS, and industry to accelerate innovation, maximize patient benefits and economic growth.  Dame Anna is a member of several editorial boards and, from 2012 – 2022, was Editor-in-Chief of Hypertension, journal of the American Heart Association. Currently, she is Editor-in Chief of Precision Medicine, a new Prism journal of the Cambridge Press. In March 2020, Anna led the establishment of Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow to provide rapid Covid–19 diagnostics, and then was asked to become Director of Laboratories at the UK Department of Health and Social Care to lead all 10 Lighthouse Laboratories across the UK, the role she fulfilled until 2022. In July 2022 Professor Dominiczak was appointed as Chief Scientist (Health) for the Scottish Government, where she leads and coordinates health research and innovation, working in partnership with the NHS, academia and industry to develop rapid translation and adoption of transformative innovations for the Scottish NHS.  

Jump-Starting the journey towards a more modern software engineering approach

Ian spent over 20 years at Vodafone, moving from a programmer role to become Global Head of Delivery for Digital and Customer Operations, focussing primarily on people before tech. When the opportunity came to leave Vodafone, family experiences of the NHS (both good and bad) drove him to seek a career with the NHS in England. Following 2 year’s secondment with Digital and Security from The NHS Leadership Academy within NHS England, Ian successfully applied for his current role. ​

Ian has also contributed to national initiatives in England such as ‘Building a Digital Ready Workforce’ as well as providing consultancy and advice to foundation trusts re digital transformation​

Ian holds professional qualifications in Project and Programme Management. He also has passed the NHS Leadership Academy Award in Executive Healthcare Leadership 

Morten Elbæk Petersen has been the CEO of the Danish eHealth portal, sundhed.dk, since it was founded in 2002. Morten has more than 30 years of management experience in public administration with a primary focus on implementing eHealth, quality development, prevention and patient empowerment.  The Danish eHealth portal pioneers open access to medical records and is in this regard unique worldwide. Today, the universe of sundhed.dk includes the portal and the app MinSundhed, both making out a central part in the Danish e-Health care system. During the covid-19 pandemic in Denmark, sundhed.dk and MinSundhed played a crucial role, not least due to development of the corona passport.

Morten Elbæk Petersen holds a Master’s degree in Economics and Social Science from the University of Odense. He also serves as an external examiner for Public Health IT Masters programmes at Danish universities.

In 2015, Morten received HIMSS Europe eHealth Leadership Award.

Morten is a member of Danish and International Advisory boards. Among others, he has since 2018 been  member of the independent International Scientific Advisory Board of the German MII (Medical Informatics Initiative), which is founded of German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.  The program has a budget of 400 million euro.

Morten is a recognized and requested presenter within health-it in Denmark and at the international scene.

Rikke is the Portfolio Director for Social Care, Digital Health and Care Division of the Public Health Directorate at Scottish Government. She was formerly the Director of Iriss, a social care research and innovation organisation based in Glasgow, and led the organisation’s strategic development and collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders across the Scottish health and social services sectors. A qualified Improvement Leader (ScIL) with seventeen years’ worth of successfully leading improvement and innovation projects, Rikke is also a member of the Health Foundation’s Q Community and UNESCO’s Inclusive Policy Lab. 

Dr Gerald Lip is the Clinical Director for breast screening in the North East of Scotland and the Principal Investigator of the GEMINI prospective evaluation of mammography artificial intelligence supported by the NHS National Strategy for AI in Health and Social Care.  He has previously completed a 4-year retrospective research project on mammography AI as part of the Innovate UK funded Industrial Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Diagnostics in Scotland. Dr Lip is a Senior Innovation Fellow awarded by the Chief Scientists Office of Scotland to lead innovation adoption in the NHS. He was recently appointed Faculty Lead for Artificial Intelligence in the University of Aberdeen Medical School. Dr Lip is the President of the British Society of Breast Radiology and is the Chair of the AI special interest group of the British Institute of Radiology and the AI partnerships advisor to the Royal College of Radiology. 

Ruth is Policy Manager for Digital Health & Care at COSLA. Prior to joining COSLA she worked for Dumfries & Galloway Council and the Health & Social Care Partnership, first as a Social Worker and Social Work Manager and latterly as Strategic Planning and Commissioning Manager for Digital Health & Social Care. Ruth is passionate about using digital and data across health, Social Work and social care services to improve outcomes for people using and delivering services 

Nicola started her career with local government in 1998 and held several roles in South Lanarkshire Council in both frontline service delivery and in strategy/policy development.  

Nicola commenced working with COSLA, in December 2013 and covered welfare reform and devolved social security before taking on the housing and homelessness brief in autumn of 2017. Nicola has subsequently led both the Children and Young People team and Health and Social Care Team in COSLA. 

In October 2021, Nicola took on the role of Director of People Policy in COSLA and now provides day to day leadership for COSLA as a member of SMT. Nicola manages teams including Health and Social Care, Children and Young People, Strategic Migration and Digital Services. 

Thomas Rysgaard Christiansen is a Partner at Netcompany, working with governments across Europe to drive digital strategies and transformation. He joined Netcompany in 2023 as the Group lead for digital government, overseeing key initiatives, including the large-scale EU EUDI-Wallet project. Before joining Netcompany, Thomas gained extensive international experience in both the public and private sectors. Most recently, he served as CEO of KOMBIT, Inc. for 14 years, leading the procurement, development and implementation of efficient, integrated, and user-friendly IT solutions for Denmark’s state and local governments. Drawing on his technical and business expertise, he played a pivotal role in modernizing critical case management and self-service systems, while ensuring the implementation of new digital infrastructure across all Danish municipalities. A strong advocate for digitalization and a connected public sector, Thomas brings extensive experience from both the public and private sectors to his approach to digital transformation. He is an active member of expert boards and facilitates several networks focused on digital development and transformation. 

Ryan Anderson is the Policy Lead for Data and Intelligence in the Digital Health and Care Division of the Scottish Government. As part of this role he is responsible for the Data Strategy for Health and Social Care, as well as Part Two of the proposed National Care Service Bill. 

He has been a civil servant for seven years and joined the Scottish Government in February 2021, following a career as an intelligence analyst in the military and with HMRC.  

Margaret is Head of Innovation for Care and Wellbeing.  She has over 20 years experience working with Scottish Government,  in strategic and programme delivery roles, bringing experience of significant change programmes along with  her clinical experience and  delivery roles with NHS Fife.    

Up until January 2024 Margaret led the   national cross sector TEC Programme in partnership with the NHS, Local Government, Third, Housing and Independent sector  providers aimed at supporting scale up and deployment in Scotland. This centred around the citizen and focused on improving access to services by using digital technologies and approaches to enable improved outcomes.  Margaret also championed a number of Digital Inclusion programmes and continues to lead the Digital Lifelines Scotland portfolio.  

Margaret leads the national Digital Health and Care Fest  proving a national and  international focus to developments in Scotland.  She is also involved in international projects and collaborations. 

Within DHI, Margaret’s role is to champion and lead the opportunities for digital innovation for integrated care and wellbeing bringing a spotlight to wider social care and housing opportunities.  

Margaret is a Trustee/Board member  of ENABLE Scotland and Hanover Housing Association. 

Presentation focus: Outlining the transition from analogue to digital telecare services in Scotland and highlighting the importance of telecare in ensuring safety and independence for users, the progress of the Digital Telecare Programme, and the collaborative efforts to implement innovative and future-proofed telecare solutions.

David works for the Digital Office for Scottish Local Government and leads the team responsible for delivering Scotland’s Digital Telecare transformation programme. Prior to moving into this role, he was a Senior Manager with the Edinburgh Health and Social Care Partnership for more than 10 years, providing senior level leadership to a portfolio of services including Community Equipment, Telecare and Citywide Supported Housing. David was also the Partnerships Lead Officer for Digital Telecare during this time. With a demonstrated history of working in the Technology Enabled Care, Housing and Third sector. David is skilled in Strategic Planning, Business Development, Organizational Development, Change Management and is a qualified Agile Practitioner. David also holds a Post Graduate Diploma (PGDip) focused in Public Sector Leadership.

Professor David J Lowe is Clinical Director Innovation University of Glasgow, Emergency Consultant at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow and Clinical Lead for Health Innovation for Scottish Government.

David has significant experience of creating the infrastructure and conditions to develop innovative devices, services and solutions with a range of industry and academic partners both UK and worldwide. He leads the Digital Health Validation Lab (DHVL.org) that seeks to develop evidence to validate technologies from concept through to pivotal trial.

He leads on range of projects focused on AI within clinical pathways for diagnostic and long term management in conditions such as Heart Failure, COPD and Lung Cancer. Such projects focus on developing multimodal AI/ML clinical decision support by embedding a data driven approach combined with patient co-management into clinical care pathways. David also established the EmQuire research group focusing on data, devices and decisions within Emergency Medicine.

Jonathan is the Deputy Director for Digital Health and Care in Scottish Government, and has overall responsibility for the Digital Health and Care Data Strategy for Scotland, and is currently leading the delivery of the Digital Front Door programme. 

Prior to his current role, Jonathan held a number of IT Project Management posts in the Public and Private Sector and has a strong track record on complex IT and eHealth project and programme delivery. His career in eHealth and IT includes the delivery of the Emergency Care Summary and Key Information Summary systems which were major achievements in improving patient care across Scotland. Proud to be a CivTech Challenge Sponsor and to deliver major programmes for the NHS and wider public sector. 

Nicola Cooper is the Technology and Digital Innovation Lead at Scottish Care, the representative body for Scotland’s independent social care sector. Recognised for her leadership in social care innovation, she works with partners across care, health, academia, and industry in Scotland and beyond. Nicola has been a driving force behind award-winning initiatives, bringing extensive expertise in designing and implementing technology for aged care. Passionate about shaping an ethical, human-led future for social care, she is committed to creating the conditions for sustainable and meaningful change.