BCS Faculty of Health and Care Launch and Inaugural Conference

During 2024, as the Faculty of Clinical Informatics was closing down, BCS has been welcoming former members, fellows and special interest groups into the BCS family.  

We are now on a journey from BCS Health and Care to become the Faculty of Health & Care, launching with an inaugural conference on 10 October 2024. It was a full house with over 120 people packed into the grand venue of Goodenough College in London. There was an amazing diversity of roles from nurses to cyber security experts, senior managers and future digital leader bursary holders. 

The theme was ‘developing the profession to enable transformation’. Highlights included the three key speakers – NHS England CTO and BCS Fellow Sonia Patel, Dan West, CDIO at the Department of Health NI and Helen Thomas, CEO of Digital Health and Care Wales, all speaking about the importance of professionalising the digital health and care profession.

Reflecting the diversity of the informatics profession, there were speakers from our sister professional bodies in the Federation for Informatics Professionals (FEDIP) and an international perspective was provided by an update on EU and international patient record sharing.

We’d like to extend immense gratitude to all the BCS volunteers and staff who made the event such a success! 
Following the official launch, development of the Faculty will be an iterative process and we will adapt to the needs of our expanded membership and the input of our stakeholders, including the other professional bodies in the wider informatics field as represented in the Federation for Informatics Professionals (FEDIP). The aim is to provide a professional home for all those working in digital data and tech roles in health and care and to provide an authoritative voice on behalf of the profession.

You can find out more about the Faculty of Health and Care and all of their upcoming events on the BCS website.