Gwyn Thomas Biography

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Dr Thomas joined Informing Healthcare from the NHSIA, which was responsible for developing and managing national information & infrastructure services that supported the delivery of patient care across the NHS in England. He led the Authority through a highly productive period, overseeing its creation from the merger of a number of pre-existing organisations and shaping it to deliver an extensive portfolio of high profile national projects and services.

He also played a key role in setting up the English NHS’ National Programme for IT through contributing to the revised national strategy “21st Century IT – Supporting the NHS” and supplying a wide range of design and technical expertise and management skills through the deployment of NHSIA staff. He is committed to the professional development of health informatics staff and has worked closely with national bodies to help to create the UK Council for Health Informatics Professionals. He has also worked closely with local NHS health communities to provide them with training and support to help to change working practices so that the benefits to patients from better use of information technology can be realised.

Before joining the NHS Information Authority, Gwyn was a board member at Nottingham City Hospital where, in an ever changing environment, he held executive responsibilities at various times for patient involvement, clinical and corporate governance, information and IM&T, quality improvement, corporate communications and risk management. He has extensive experience of working with clinical teams to implement operational programmes that have delivered improvements in patient care through training and the application of process re-design techniques.

Prior to joining the NHS, Gwyn worked in the Electricity Generating Industry, heading the Applied Technology Division of the State Electricity Commission of Victoria in Australia which provided all of the specialist technical services necessary for the construction and maintenance of new and operating power stations. He has also worked in the UK power industry as engineering project manager on a number of major construction projects for nuclear and fossil fuel power stations in the UK, France, Hong Kong and India.

Born in Treorchy, educated in Cowbridge, Gwyn has a first class honours degree and PhD in Metallurgy, an MSc in Public Relations and is currently visiting professor at Brunel University.