Black Pear expands to boost care plans and electronic records for the NHS

Black Pear has snapped up a top new recruit to take our care plans, electronic health records and QuickFHIR to the next level.

Chris O’Connell has over 20 years’ experience in the NHS and was most recently driving interoperability at Philips before coming on board as our Chief Business Development Officer. But while he has notched up an impressive CV in healthtec – including implementing one of the UK’s first text notification services – Chris has not chosen an orthodox trajectory.

Before taking a start-up to become Britain’s largest supplier of communication services to the NHS, Chris had a successful stint running a family bakery. He took a brief hiatus from healthcare to run The Pet Show for two years – before returning to the industry to get 40,000 staff from 50 NHS Trusts to run in the Race to Rio. He’s even dipped his toes in the world of AI. And in between the day job Chris found time to start renovating his home – a converted 17th Century windmill.

But despite the maverick career, Chris is most excited to get started in his new role. He said:

Chris learnt about our team in his previous role working with Somerset NHS Trust on interoperability as part of the Somerset Integrated Digital e-Record (SIDeR). It means he was first familiar with our Core Care Plans, but is now getting to grips with all our solutions to forge new partnerships and take us to the next level.

He said:

Chris’ role will see him leading sales and developing partnerships and relationships with key clients. He said: