Brian Whittle is a Scottish Conservative MSP for South Scotland and Shadow Minister for Public Health, Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport. He is a former Olympic-level professional athlete, best known for running his leg of the 1986 European Championships with only one shoe – still achieving a personal best time. Brian trained as an industrial chemist prior to his career in athletics and spent several years in business as a director of various companies working across several sectors, including within the healthcare technology sector, before becoming an MSP in 2016.  He is a Member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee at Holyrood and sits on Cross Party Groups for various subjects including renewable energy, sustainable transport, and improving Scotland’s health. He is interested in tackling the root causes of poor health and health inequalities across Scotland, including access to physical activity.

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.  

Chris Mackie is the Director of Digital at the Health and Social Care Alliance Scotland (the ALLIANCE).  He leads the ALISS programme and all ALLIANCE activity around digital health and social care.  ALISS is “A Local Information System for Scotland”.  Other areas of interest are human rights principles in digital health and social care, promotion of digital tools to support health and wellbeing, and putting people at the centre of innovation and service provision in digital health and social care.  He has a passion for human rights, championing the third sector and using technology for good in sustainable, inclusive ways.

Aaron is a leader in digital inclusion, working at the Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO). In this role he was part of the team that designed and delivered the Connecting Scotland programme and has more recently been contributing his expertise to the delivery of Digital Lifelines Scotland.

Aaron’s interests in digital inclusion are currently focused on the need to reframe how we tackle digital exclusion, with an emphasis on collective responsibility in the face of public sector renewal and digitisation. His most recent work has centred on the development of place-based approaches and the implementation of frameworks to embed digital inclusion in health and social care.

Professor Marilyn Lennon is a distinguished academic and researcher specializing in Digital Health and Human-Computer Interaction. With a career spanning over 23 years, she has contributed significantly to advancing interdisciplinary approaches in the user centered design and evaluation of interactive technologies and services in the health and care sector.

Currently based at the University of Strathclyde, Professor Lennon leads innovative research projects that explore the intersection of technology, society, and user-centered design. She has over £2m in funding in the areas of person-centered design and evaluation of digital tools and services for supporting the health and wellbeing of both individuals (remote monitoring and self management tech) and populations (e.g. smart home tech, falls prevention, diabetes management, cancer care). She collaborates widely across academia and industry, driving forward impactful solutions that address real-world challenges and that can be adopted and scaled to transform health and care.

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.

Albert King is Chief Data Officer at NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). NHS NSS serves as the data hub for the health and social care economy in Scotland. Through and unrivalled mix of health and social care datasets, professional capability and it’s leading technology platform (Seer) it supports the development of insights with partners, including Public Health Scotland, Health Boards, local and national government. Previously, Albert served as Chief Data Officer in the Scottish Government and draws on over 20 years experience in industry and public sector data and technology.

Professor George Crooks is currently the Chief Executive of the Digital Health and Care Innovation Centre, Scotland’s national innovation centre for digital health and care. He leads an organisation that is tasked with delivering innovation in digital health and care that will help Scotland’s people to live longer, healthier lives, deliver sustainable health and care services for the future and create economic benefits for Scotland. DHI provides opportunities for Scotland’s public sector, academia and industry to co-design digital solutions to some of the country’s biggest health and care challenges working with patients, service users and their families. 

He was previously the Medical Director for NHS 24, the Scottish Ambulance Service and Director of the Scottish Centre for Telehealth & Telecare. George was a General Medical Practitioner for 23 years in Aberdeen latterly combining that role as Director of Primary Care for Grampian. George is on the Board of the European Connected Health Alliance and is a past president of the European Health Telematics Association. He is a Board member of TEC Quality, a UK organisation leading the implementation of quality standards and practices across the assisted living sector in the UK. He was an assessor for the European Commission on programmes involving digital health and care provision, led the Integrated Care Action Group in the European Innovation Partnership for Active and Healthy Ageing and is a member of the WHO roster of experts for digital health. He has been an advisor to several European governments and global organisations including the World Bank on digital health and care. He is an advisor to Innovate UK for its Industrial Grand Challenge programme for Health Ageing. He is also an adjunct Professor of Telehealth at the University of Southern Denmark. 

He was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours List 2011 for services to healthcare. 

Debbie Collins is a CIMA-qualified accountant with extensive experience across senior roles in both public and private sectors, including eight years in social housing. She joined Bield in 2023 as the first Chief Operating Officer, leading financial and organisational delivery. Following a successful year as Interim CEO, she was appointed to the role permanently, having steered the organisation through key strategic milestones. Passionate about delivering high-quality, supportive housing for older people, Debbie is focused on driving innovation, influencing sector-wide policy and ensuring Bield plays a leading role in shaping the future of housing and care in Scotland.

Brian Whittle is a Scottish Conservative MSP for South Scotland and Shadow Minister for Public Health, Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport. He is a former Olympic-level professional athlete, best known for running his leg of the 1986 European Championships with only one shoe – still achieving a personal best time. Brian trained as an industrial chemist prior to his career in athletics and spent several years in business as a director of various companies working across several sectors, including within the healthcare technology sector, before becoming an MSP in 2016.  He is a Member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee at Holyrood and sits on Cross Party Groups for various subjects including renewable energy, sustainable transport, and improving Scotland’s health. He is interested in tackling the root causes of poor health and health inequalities across Scotland, including access to physical activity.