Australian digital health company Telstra Health has named Dr Monica Trujillo to its newly created chief health officer post, effective 1 June.

According to a media release, Dr Trujillo is bringing with her more than two decades of experience in the health sector with backgrounds in medicine, executive roles, and clinical informatics. 

She was previously a senior director, CMO, and chief CIO at Cerner Australia and Asia-Pacific. 

Before joining Cerner in 2018, she had served various roles at the Australian Digital Health Agency, including as its first chief CIO.

Her appointment comes as Dr Vincent McCauley announced his resignation as CMO and CMIO of Telstra Health. Dr McCauley will work with Dr Trujillo during a transition period next month.

WHY IT MATTERS

Telstra Health stresses the importance of having a clinical perspective in its development of digital health solutions, especially as it expands internationally. Creating a new chief health officer post, according to Managing Director Mary Foley AM, reflects the company's efforts to combine its digital capabilities together to help solve the complex problems in the health and aged care sectors.

"I am delighted Dr Monica Trujillo will join Telstra Health. Monica’s global expertise and capability will contribute to our continued growth as an organisation and support our robust clinical governance processes," said Professor Foley.

Dr Trujillo will be focusing on "advancing patient-centred care and safety and improving quality outcomes through the adoption of clinical technology, clinician leadership, and active community collaboration".

She is looking forward to engaging clinicians and consumers in the design, implementation and sustainability of digital health solutions "to bring about high quality and safety outcomes".

Meanwhile, Dr McCauley is leaving his CMO/CMIO posts to "re-focus on his external work," Telstra Health said. 

He was attributed for the establishment of the company's clinical governance framework which has led to its clinical incident management process. 

During his tenure, he has set up a comprehensive clinical software safety programme and developed a training and support programme for clinical safety officers. He had also guided the implementation of Telstra Health's eHealth software standards.

"The digitisation of our healthcare system during my time at Telstra Health has developed rapidly, bringing its own complexities, particularly through the pandemic, and the rapid adoption of virtual care solutions. I am proud of how we have navigated this period of change to ensure the health and safety of our patients, clinicians and staff," Dr McCauley commented.

THE LARGER TREND

Telstra Health has been working on its global expansion through acquisitions. 

In August last year, it signed a binding agreement to purchase Sydney-based practice management software provider MedicalDirector, which will help the company establish its presence in the United Kingdom where the latter is already operating. 

Telstra Health is also closing a deal to buy a majority stake in another healthcare software provider, PowerHealth, whose international business covers Canada, Ireland, and the Middle East.