Dr Brian Robson Executive Clinical Director

About me

Brian is a Quality Improvement Fellow and Executive Clinical Director, Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS).

He has a background in general practice, having been a GP in the West of Scotland for almost 10 years, during which time he was a founder member of an out-of-hours service, REMS.

REMS operated using telephone based nurse triage, standardised protocols and later developed to use an electronic record. He was appointed Medical Director of NHS 24 in 2001, which provides a Scotland-wide telephone based triage and health advice service for Scotland’s 5.1 million people.

In 2005, Brian undertook a one-year secondment with Information Services Division (ISD), where he chaired the working group on the development of the Secondary Uses Service (SUS). In January 2007, he took up a new position as Clinical Director for eHealth across NHS National Services Scotland (NSS). NHS NSS provides a range of ‘common’ services across NHS Scotland, including national information technologies, information analytical services, legal services and national blood transfusion services.

As part of his Quality Improvement Fellowship, Brian will develop this interest in the role of technologies in supporting reliability and evidence-based care. In his own words Brian is passionate about ‘making it easy to do the right thing’ and believes that technologies must support this principle. He is keen to learn as much as possible from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) to develop his understanding of the role technology has played in quality improvement settings in the US and further afield.

Through his fellowship and existing knowledge of the technologies in place and planned across NHS Scotland, Brian believes he can contribute more effectively to service improvement across Scotland, and beyond.

Brian was a member of the NHS Scotland eHealth Strategy Board from 2003-2005. As a member of the National Advisory Committee for the Scottish Patient Safety Alliance, he is committed to ensuring that eHealth plays its part in improving patient safety. He continues in clinical practice with a regular session in general practice in Glasgow.