Rob James
CIO OF THE YEAR, EUROPE,
MIDDLE EAST, AND AFRICA
Information is healthcare’s lifeblood.
2010
WINNER STATS
Name: Rob James
Job title: Group CIO
Company: Novartis
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Award: CIO of the Year, Europe,
Middle East, and Africa, 2010
Rob James, group CIO of the US$45 billion Swiss healthcare leader
Novartis and Oracle Magazine’s CIO of the Year for Europe, Middle
East, and Africa, is constantly thinking about opportunities to better
help patients. “What gets me fired up in the morning is the potential
for enabling better patient outcomes as the healthcare value chain
becomes increasingly digitized,” says James.
Doing that requires an I T infrastructure that supports business
innovation, delivers market insight, and establishes integrated data
management, while still ensuring efficiency and compliance.
“We have to have the right foundation, with reliable IT
infrastructure and application platforms that allow us to take
concepts from early drug discovery and manufacturing through the
commercialization process to markets worldwide,” says James. “That
means managing and mining vast amounts of data to really gain the
types of insight we need.”
To do that, James and his organization are on a journey to take IT
to the next level. For example, technology advances in social media,
monitoring devices, and ways of making data available to physicians
are offering new ways to help physicians improve patient outcomes
in areas such as compliance and health monitoring. “Increasingly,”
James says, “we are seeing new and exciting opportunities to
positively make an impact.”
Making a substantial positive impact in an area like healthcare
often takes a team. That’s why James is also excited about Novartis’
partnership with Oracle.
“Oracle maintains a strong focus on healthcare and is committed
to innovation and willing to step up as a strategic partner,” says
James. “Novartis has made a big commitment to Oracle as a
technology standard, especially with Oracle Clinical and Oracle
Fusion Middleware. These applications will help increase innovation
and drive efficiency. We have invested in a long-term program to
implement leading-edge clinical data systems with Oracle that give
us the ability to manage and gain better insights from the many
clinical trials we run and help our company bring important drugs to
market faster.”
As good as the new technologies are, James doesn’t lose sight
of the ultimate goal and the reasons why Novartis is pushing the
IT envelope.
“In a nutshell, I believe that the right IT solutions can make a big
difference in peoples’ lives,” says James. “I’m humbled to work for
Novartis, whose work positively impacts the health of millions of
people and in many cases saves lives. And it is great to have Oracle
with us on the journey.”
