To survive and prosper long, health systems must be financially, socially, and economically sustainable. All health systems face a challenge in being sustainable in that
Author: Dr Richard Smith
Dr. Richard Smith is Chairman for the Board of Directors of Patients Know Best.
He is also director of the Ovations initiative run by world-leading health care organization UnitedHealthcare. Its mission is to combat chronic disease in the developing world. The initiative funds centres in China, Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Tunisia, Tanzania, South Africa, Central America, and the US Mexico border.
A member of the board of the Public Library of Science, he is also an honorary professor at the University of Warwick, a member of the governing council of St George’s, University of London, and editor of Cases Journal, a new electronic journal that aims to publish tens of thousands of case reports a year. Previously he was chief executive of UnitedHealth Europe, a subsidiary of the UnitedHealth Group that works with public health systems in Europe.
Before that he was editor of the British Medical Journal and chief executive of the BMJ Publishing Group. Having qualified in medicine in Edinburgh, he worked in hospital in Scotland and New Zealand before joining the BMJ. He also worked for six years as a television doctor with the BBC and TV-AM and has a degree in management science from the Stanford Business School. He loves making soup, marmalade, and trouble.
The vision of an electronically connected NHS comes closer
Eleven years after the National Programme for IT was abandoned at an established cost of £12.7 billion and a probable cost of nearly £20 billion, the vision of a paperless NHS once again looms closer.
What was difficult if not impossible two weeks ago is happening fast now with covid-19
Almost a quarter of a century ago I wrote in The BMJ about an evolution from “industrial age medicine” to “information age healthcare.” Despite the spread of the
Time to scrap offices (and cut down face-to-face consultations) to reduce carbon consumption
I’m pleased to see from Twitter that most people agree with my recent assertion that most meetings could be held virtually rather than face-to-face, saving tonnes
Chair of Patients Know Best also becomes the chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change
Last week, I was pleased to be appointed as the chair of the UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (UKHACC). As its name implies, the
The thinking of the new chief executive of NHSX, which is charged with digitising the NHS
Richard Smith is the Chair of Patients Know Best and was also the editor of The BMJ until 2004. This blog has also been published on The BMJ.