Imperial College Healthcare appoints first director of strategy, research and innovation
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust has appointed Dr Bob Klaber OBE to the new role of director of strategy, research and innovation, part of the executive management team.
The post is a development of Dr Klaber’s role as deputy medical director which he has held for the past year. It also builds on his work before that as associate medical director when he led the introduction of the Trust’s quality improvement methodology and central team in 2015.
The new executive portfolio is intended to enable a stronger, cross-divisional focus on implementation of the Trust’s organisational and clinical strategy, agreed earlier this year. Connecting strategy more directly with research and innovation will also support staff in working with patients and other partners to develop and spread new models of care, clinical practices and technologies.
Dr Klaber studied at Cambridge University and Bart's and The London School of Medicine before completing his postgraduate training in paediatrics in hospitals across London. He worked twice as a paediatric registrar at St Mary's Hospital before being appointed as a consultant at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in 2009. He has also trained as a medical educationalist in quality improvement and, through an MD at University College London, in mixed methods research. He is a member of the NHS Assembly.
He has been part of the medical director’s office for the past four years and will continue to work closely with medical director Professor Julian Redhead and his team. He will also continue to work as a consultant paediatrician at the Trust and as part of connecting care for children, a service that sees hospital specialists working out in primary care hubs in partnership with GPs and families.
Chief executive of Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, Professor Tim Orchard, said: “We’ve done a lot of work with our staff and partners to create a really exciting and ambitious vision for what we want to achieve – better health, for life. It’s grounded in our values – to be kind, collaborative, expert and aspirational. And we’ve translated all of that into tangible goals and objectives that set a clear direction for us for the next few years. Bob has been a key driver of our strategy and culture work and I’m delighted that he will bring that experience, together with his huge expertise and networks in improvement, learning and innovation, to this new role.”
Dr Klaber said: “I’m really excited to be able to build on our work over the past few years to create a bigger focus on strategy, research and innovation in my new post. The Trust’s hospitals all have a fantastic and long track record in this area and, through new approaches to enabling all of our staff, as well as our patients, partners and local communities, to play their full role, I know we will continue to add to this legacy in the years ahead.”
