Professor David Rosser, the long-serving high-profile CEO of University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) NHS Foundation Trust, is to step down to take on a new regional digital role.

Prof Rosser will become the West Midland’s first strategic director for Digital Health and Care.

The move was announced in an internal staff email seen by Digital Health News.

Prof Rosser, who has been at UHB since 1996, will leave UHB at the end of the year to take up the role, which will link together public sector digital, technology and data programmes across the region.

According to the email, “Dave will examine a range of interventions that can make a difference to the life of citizens and staff; from how mobile technology can support people to book services online, through to how organisations share data to support improvements in care.

“Our ambition is to create a joined-up approach to how the public sector better uses technology and help generate more inward investment into public sector programmes in the future.”

Under Prof Rosser UHB was one of the first NHS trusts to digitise at scale and use data insights gained to systematically address variations in clinical performance and outcomes.

The trust deployed several pieces of technology, including a suite of digital patient engagement tools last year in a partnership with DrDoctor.