Martin Carpenter

Martin Carpenter serves as Healthcare CIO for the Government of Jersey, where he leads the island’s ambitious digital transformation of healthcare services for its 104,000 residents. In this role, he is responsible for maturing the digital health environment to deliver better health outcomes for islanders, improved value for money in healthcare spending, enhanced access to services and an improved working environment for health and care professionals.

With more than 25 years of experience in technology, Martin’s career has been defined by a gravitational pull towards organisations with social purpose and social impact.

His journey into healthcare began a decade ago when he joined a teleradiology business – a joint venture between University College Hospital London and an Australian company.

“I really enjoyed the fact that healthcare is very much about doing good,” Martin shares. “I previously worked for two social housing providers and found myself gravitating to organisations that had social purpose and impact.”

Martin’s healthcare technology career has included diverse and challenging positions. He worked at a genomics startup, exploring the intersection of cutting-edge science and digital health. He also served as UK CIO for Optum, the American healthcare insurance giant, where he gained exposure to a wide range of healthcare products and saw firsthand how different approaches could be adapted and applied across healthcare systems.

At the Government of Jersey, Martin’s approach to his colleagues centres on servant leadership, coaching and encouraging creativity among his teams. 

He believes strongly in creating authentic working environments where people can be themselves and perform at their best. “The environment allows me to be myself. When you are yourself in an organisation, you are performing at your best,” he says.

Martin describes his role as requiring constant diplomacy, working closely with the Minister for Health, ministerial teams, executive colleagues and islanders across the healthcare system. “Taking everybody with you is a real challenge,” Martin explains. “Everyone’s got their own particular way of doing things, so we’re acting as a change agent, straddling the fine line between wanting to shake things up and taking people along on that journey.”

A key aspect of Martin’s approach is his belief that failure is an essential part of innovation. 

He says: “If we are not failing, safely, we are probably not trying hard enough – we need to push the boundaries of where we need to go.” This perspective runs counter to traditional public sector culture but is critical for achieving genuine transformation.

For Martin, digital transformation must be viewed as a process rather than an event – a particularly important distinction in an era of rapid technological change. 

He uses the NHS quadruple aim framework as his ‘true north’: How are we improving patient outcomes? How are we improving access to services? How are we delivering better value for money? How are we improving the experience for health and care professionals?

His hands-on leadership style includes regular visits to hospital floors. 

Martin is currently leading a five-year programme of digital health maturity, with the next 12-18 months focused on implementing a single patient record, enabling remote monitoring and virtual wards, strengthening information governance and embedding agile, responsive ways of working across the organisation.

“Getting into a way of working which is agile and responsive – taking on new information as it comes to us – means people may want our services delivered slightly differently than the original plan,” Martin says. “Creating a culture that facilitates the ability to deliver high-quality digital transformation at pace – and at good value for money – is going to keep us busy for the next 12 to 18 months.”

Under his leadership, the Government of Jersey is working to overcome its current position at HIMSS continuity of care digital maturity level zero, leveraging the advantage of minimal legacy technology to accelerate its ambitions. 

Through partnerships with organisations like IMS MAXIMS and collaborative relationships across the voluntary sector and NHS, Martin is reimagining how responsive, data-driven public healthcare can be delivered.

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