HealthTech Speakers

Professor Scott Wallace is a recognised international expert on Value Based Healthcare and previous contributor to HealthTech Week. Scott follows developments in NZ and Australia closely as Value Based Health Care principles have started taking root. He is able to bring an international perspective and examples to help guide NZ as the pace of change and reforms in health care increase. He will also answer questions on implementing Value Based Healthcare and Procurement in a post COVID world.

Scott Wallace is the co-founder and Managing Director of the Value Institute for Health and Care and an Associate Professor with appointments at the University of Texas Dell Medical School and the McCombs School of Business.  At UT, Prof. Wallace  leverages his business, health care IT, and health policy background to work with students, employers, health care leaders, and other stakeholders to transform health care delivery in the U.S. and around the world. 

Prof. Wallace recently served as the Interim Chief Business Officer of the Dell Medical School and is an integral member of the Dell Medical School faculty. Prior to joining the University of Texas at Austin, Prof. Wallace helped to create Dartmouth’s Master in Health Care Delivery Science program, an innovative course for mid-career executives and clinicians and served on the faculty for Harvard Business School’s executive education program on health care strategy.

Prof. Wallace was appointed by President George W. Bush to chair the Federal Commission on Systemic Interoperability, which advised the White House and Congress on information technology and health transformation. He was also the first president and CEO of the National Alliance for Health Information Technology, and was a co-founder of the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology. Before his academic career, Prof. Wallace helped co-found an early-stage venture capital firm, was CEO of a specialty chemical company, and practiced corporate law at the Chicago law firm Kirkland & Ellis. 

Prof. Wallace holds a juris doctorate from the University of Chicago Law School, a master’s degree with honors in business administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, and has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Duke University.

Tony Alexander is one of NZ's foremost Economists and Commentators and brings his unique perspective and style to the HealthTech Conference Webcast. Tony will comment on how the post COVID macro environment is likely to impact NZ: NZ Economically - Where to now?

I may have written more about the New Zealand economy than any other economist, having produced daily and weekly commentaries from 1987-1993, then weekly, monthly, quarterly, and many one-off pieces of analysis from 1993 through to 2019. At one time I was the most interviewed economist in New Zealand and was awarded the Residential Economist of the Year award in 2011. I also spent a year and a half chatting about the economy each morning with Paul Holmes from 1992-93, and before that had a 5.30am slot on Radio Pacific discussing exchange rates. Currently I have a fortnightly column on property matters in the Sunday Star-Times and write a weekly publication available on the Publications page and by subscribing here. What I concentrate on and where my true area of expertise lies, is translating the arcane world of economic developments and trends into a language understandable by most people in the business and home buying sectors.

Sarah Fitt will focus on what lessons are emerging from the initial crisis response that could inform the post COVID landscape and how PHARMAC is planning it’s management of the surge in demand from the public health sector as deferred treatments are prioritised,  especially in light of the supply side constraints of the post COVID world.

Sarah was appointed Chief Executive of PHARMAC in January 2018, having been PHARMAC's Director of Operations since April 2013.

Before joining PHARMAC, Sarah spent 12 years as Chief Pharmacist at Auckland DHB and previously worked as a hospital pharmacist in the UK before moving to New Zealand.

Shayne Hunter is uniquely positioned as having been at the coal face of the ‘tactical’ COVID response but has also seen strategic change as initiatives materialized in this environment. Shayne is going to share his view especially on how the digital and data health projects have been moved forward and the lessons learned from COVID updates on data systems.

Shayne Hunter joined the Ministry of Health in March 2019 as the Deputy Director-General, Data and Digital.

Shayne has spent the last 19 years in the health and disability sector where he developed a strong a passion for information and technology enabled improvements for the system and for the health outcomes for individuals and our population.

His previous role was as the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for Capital & Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa DHBs where he was a member of the ELT for each district health board. He was also previously the chair of the Central Region DHB’s CIO group and the Chair of the Health Sector National IS Leaders Forum. Prior to his role as CIO, he was based at the Ministry and led a number of national initiatives in the area of medicines management. 

Shayne started his career with IBM before leaving to establish a number of start-up business based on emerging technologies. From there he has held delivery and leadership roles in government and the private sector.

While the immediate threat from the virus has receded the build up of procedures and treatments suspended during the lockdown, it is placing extraordinary pressure on already stressed Medical Device supply lines. Dr Peter Bramley has unique insights from a broad range of stakeholders and will give his perspective on procurement lessons learned from COVID.

Peter has extensive management experience and an interesting career path. His academic career began at the University of Otago where he gained a Bachelor of Science in biochemistry and physics. He worked for the Wellcome Medical Research Institute in Dunedin and at the same time completed a PhD in Medicine.  Dr Bramley lectured in Biochemistry and Medical Physiology, first in Dunedin and then at the University of Canterbury in Christchurch.  

Between 1999 and 2007 Peter held various senior management roles with the accounting software company, MYOB New Zealand Ltd.  In 2008 he stepped back into health as Service Manager of Surgical Services at Southland Hospital in Invercargill.  

At the end of 2010, Peter moved to Nelson and joined the Nelson Marlborough Health Executive Leadership Team as Service Director Medical and Surgical Services.  In 2013 Peter became General Manager Clinical Services and in August 2016 stepped into the role as Acting CE.  Peter has been the Chief Executive Officer of Nelson Marlborough Health (NMH) since April 2017.

Peter is an energetic and passionate people manager, with a strong focus on the importance of accessing healthcare close to home and growing a compassionate workforce in the health sector.  

Examples of Value Based Healthcare

Dr. Gabriela Prada is a physician and a policy expert with over 20 years of clinical, policy analysis, and management consulting experience in health care. As the Global Director of Health Systems Policy at Medtronic, she leads and supports value-based health care and value-based procurement efforts across various geographies. Gabriela has conducted research, published, and facilitated roundtables and conferences on value-based topics in Canada, Europe, Latin America, and Australia for close to 10 years. Previously, she was the Director of Health Innovation Policy at Canada’s largest think tank (The Conference Board of Canada). She has served in and chaired various Boards and was appointed to serve in the Healthcare Sector Supply Chain Strategy Expert Panel by the Ontario Government. She has a master’s degree in health administration from the University of Ottawa, is a mentor, and is a Certified Health Executive (Canadian College of Health Leaders). She has two daughters, Oriana and Sofia.

John will share content on global supply chain impacts with focus on the healthcare sector as one of the most impacted by supply side challenges and regulatory changes.  

John is the Deloitte APAC Sourcing and Procurement Lead and National Lead Partner for Supply Chain and Procurement at Deloitte Australia. He works with clients providing consulting and technology advice with a particular focus on Supply Chain and Procurement Optimisation and digitally enabled transformation. He has industry leading knowledge and experience around emerging technologies and their application in supply chain and procurement operations.

Telehealth response to Crises

Andrew is unique in the health sector and quite possibly in New Zealand. That’s because of his age, the role and responsibility he currently has, his vision, his passions, and the fact that he also maintains an in-depth knowledge of potato farming in the Wairarapa, New Zealand where he grew up.

Andrew is the founding CEO of New Zealand’s integrated National Telehealth Service (NTS), established in 2015 to virtually support Kiwis to stay well and connect them seamlessly with care when they need it.

Combining several digital health services under one umbrella, the National Telehealth Service launched with seven services; today NTS encompasses over 25. Over 3,500 New Zealanders a day contact one or more of those services – via seven digital channels. NTS is a world first and has been a game changer for equitable access to free, clinically robust physical and mental health support in New Zealand.

In January 2020 Andrew led a clinical organisation of over 400 staff of health and mental health nurses, counsellors, poisons officers, paramedics and psychiatrists – based in five centres and from their home offices around the country, as well as emergency tele-triage nurses in ambulance command centres. Then everything changed with COVID-19 and Healthline being tasked with supporting the New Zealand COVID response.

In the last four months Andrew has overseen the set-up of five new contact centres, employing and training over 700 extra people; the delivery of a five-month technology project in just seven days, to make the NTS infrastructure six times bigger; and most importantly, managing over 600,000 Healthline contacts since 1 February.

Andrew decided as a 15-year-old ambulance officer in rural Wairarapa, New Zealand that he wanted to change the health system. And he has stuck to that. Andrew’s previous roles in the health sector have been in transformation, strategy, and human resources in St John ambulance and with Vigil Monitoring.