AI in Health and Social Care Scotland Conference

Colin took up his post of Scotland Director in 2022. A registered nurse for over 30 years, Colin has been a key member of the RCN Scotland team for many years including Associate Director for Pay, Terms and Conditions. He has also worked across the UK and spent time working as an Associate Director in RCN Northern Ireland during the period of pay dispute which, for the first time in the RCN’s history, led to industrial action and a significant victory and recognition for nursing in relation to pay and conditions.

As Executive Director of RCN Scotland he has led a number of successful campaigns which have resulted in significant wins for the nursing profession, including the creation of the first Ministerial led taskforce for nursing and midwifery.

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 major programmes across the NHS and Care Sectors. During the Covid pandemic, Jonathan led the digital response including the delivery of the Covid Vaccination System and Protect Scotland app. 

Prior to his current role, Jonathan has held a number of data and IT programme posts in the public and private sector, and has a strong track record on complex IT and data system 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.  

Roger Halliday is CEO at Research Data Scotland, providing leadership to improving public wellbeing through transforming how data is used in research, innovation and insight. Roger was Scotland’s Chief Statistician from 2011 to 2022. During that time he was also Scottish Government Chief Data Officer (2017-20), and jointly led Scottish Government Covid Analytical Team during the pandemic. Before that, he worked in the Department of Health in England as a policy analyst managing evidence for decision making across NHS issues. He became an honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow in 2019.

Karen Hedge is a senior systems leader in a global social care ecosystem, driving innovation, ethics, and sector-wide reform. She started as a paid carer and has worked in all parts of the system – public to private, frontline to board. She believes that true impact is measured in the experiences of people not processes.

Now the DCEO of Scottish Care, Karen leads national work on sector sustainability, human rights, ethical commissioning, fair work, net zero, digital transformation and innovation. She co-chairs Scotland’s national multi-disciplinary care home collaborative focused on improving people’s experience of integration locally, and is part of the IMPACT leadership team, a UKRI funded project to bridge the evidence-into-practice gap across the UK.

Karen is also a member of the University of the West of Scotland Court, where she contributes to the strategic direction of Scotland’s university if the year for social inclusion, scoring in the top 10 globally for widening access.

A sought-after catalyst on ethically driven system transformation, she is known for bringing clarity to complexity and for convening collaboration across government, providers, academia, and communities.

Beyond work, Karen serves as a Coastguard Rescue Officer and, as an Ayrshire lass, can often be found enjoying beach time with her family. FRSA MIOD.

George began his social services career supporting adults with learning disabilities before working with people and families affected by problematic substance use. He has more than 18 years’ experience in national workforce development, including roles as Operations Manager at Scottish Training on Drugs and Alcohol (STRADA) and Workforce Development Manager at Scottish Drugs Forum (SDF).

He now leads the Digital Learning Team at the Scottish Social Services Council, which regulates Scotland’s social work, social care, and children and young people’s workforce.

He is particularly interested in how digital technologies can support the delivery of excellent social services, helping the workforce adapt to new ways of working and learning, and addressing challenges across the sector.

George is a board member at SDF and volunteers as a Children’s Hearings panel member.

Professor Kathrin Cresswell is a social scientist with extensive experience in conducting formative evaluations of digitally enabled change and improvement programmes in health and care. She has consulted for the World Health Organization, Harvard Medical School, NHS England and Improvement. She is a member of the International Academy of Quality and Safety in Health Care, the Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland, and has received the Yvonne Carter Award for Outstanding New Researcher. Kathrin is also a Fellow of the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics, and co-chair of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) and European Federation of Medical Informatics Evaluation Working Groups on evaluation. She has over 140 peer-reviewed publications in international academic journals and £56 million in research grant funding. She is currently Professor of Digital Innovations in Health and Care at the Usher Institute at the University of Edinburgh, and Course Lead on a Scottish national digital health leadership programme. She was previously Module Lead on an English national digital health leadership programme and has taught over 450 national and international health information technology leaders about Technology Strategy and Health Information Systems Implementation. Kathrin’s research is on the use of a variety of health information technologies in context. These have included both patient- and professional-facing technologies comprising electronic health records, robotics, health and fitness apps, artificial intelligence and decision support systems. She is an expert in conducting evaluations of digital applications, having applied formative methods in a variety of health and care settings. Bringing together stakeholders with varying perspectives is key to her ongoing work, where she examines how political, commercial, organisational, patient and health and care workers’ interests need to be aligned to transform health and care through safe and scalable technologies.

Dr Steve Baguley is Chief Clinical Digital Officer at NHS Grampian and a consultant in Sexual Health & HIV. He is a leading voice in the responsible adoption of AI in healthcare. He was lead author of the NHS Grampian Digital Strategy “Service Transformation through Digital” and the North of Scotland AI Strategy “Spending Time Where it Counts” and remains on its implementation group of the latter. The strategy aims to increase the adoption of process automation, machine learning, predictive analytics and robotics to improve patient care and operational efficiency.

Steve has previously worked as a clinical advisor to the Digital Health & Care Directorate of the Scottish Government and was clinical chair of the Health Board Digital Leads group and clinical advisor to the NES Digital Service. He sits on the national Technical Design Authority and the M365 Programme Board.

Professor Steven Drost is a serial entrepreneur and three-time founder with 25 years’ experience building and governing organisations across the UK, Germany and Spain. He is an Honorary Professor at the University of Edinburgh Business School, lecturing on AI and startups to MBA students. He was a key contributor to the Scottish Government’s AI Strategy Paper (2026-2031) and has long-standing relationships across AI hyperscalers, government, academia and venture capital.

Colin took up his post of Scotland Director in 2022. A registered nurse for over 30 years, Colin has been a key member of the RCN Scotland team for many years including Associate Director for Pay, Terms and Conditions. He has also worked across the UK and spent time working as an Associate Director in RCN Northern Ireland during the period of pay dispute which, for the first time in the RCN’s history, led to industrial action and a significant victory and recognition for nursing in relation to pay and conditions.

As Executive Director of RCN Scotland he has led a number of successful campaigns which have resulted in significant wins for the nursing profession, including the creation of the first Ministerial led taskforce for nursing and midwifery.