How can the board help?

What these leaders need above all is strategic air cover. The board has a critical role in being the champion for your digital ambitions, protecting focus, and prioritising the long-term. This includes actively supporting the often unglamorous work of fixing the foundations, treating digital investments as core strategic enablers which are vital to ‘frontline’ delivery (not ‘back office’ spend), and being clear about the prioritisation decisions you make - especially when loud voices can risk creating distracting noise.

The board also needs to help protect against the traps of false certainty. The opportunities for digital transformation to make a huge impact are clear, but the pace of change means that you need to encourage your teams to test and learn, iterating as they go. While the potential for AI to radically change patient care is clear, nobody really knows exactly how that will play out in practice. Be clear about your most important strategic outcomes and make sure that the whole leadership team is helping to create the space to explore how these can be realised.