Lara Hopley

Chief Clinical Informatics Officer, Health New Zealand

Lara Hopley is an anaesthetist by trade and temperament, and Chief Clinical Informatics Officer for Health New Zealand, Te Whatu Ora. She still works part-time in theatre at Waitematā, helping keep her national digital leadership firmly connected to frontline clinical care.

Her journey into informatics began with a simple idea: make it easy to do the right thing, hard to do the wrong thing — but not impossible. This mindset drew her into human factors, quality and safety improvement, and from there, into the digital world.

Over time, Lara has worked closely with digital teams to design tools that reduce waste and rework, and that help clinicians focus on what matters most: caring for people and whānau.

In her role as Chief Clinical Informatics Officer, she brings a whole-of-system clinical perspective to digital planning and governance across New Zealand. She also helps mentor future leaders, working to build a supportive community of clinicians and digital professionals committed to practical, clinician-focused change.

At heart, Lara is motivated by a single goal: making technology work better for clinicians — so they can partner with people and whānau to grow a system that truly supports person- and whānau-led care.

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