A Strategic Summit on Connecting Systems, People, and Practice - All Convenzis Events Provide 8 CPD Points Per Delegate
Current landscape and challenges:
Interoperability is now recognised as a foundational requirement for NHS transformation, yet progress remains uneven across systems and pathways. While national strategies, standards and programmes are increasingly well defined, many NHS organisations continue to face challenges in translating ambition into safe, reliable and usable connections in day-to-day practice.
The most persistent barriers are rarely technical alone. Instead, interoperability programmes are often slowed by organisational complexity, unclear ownership, misaligned workflows, governance uncertainty and cultural resistance to change. Even where standards exist and systems are technically capable, challenges around trust, accountability, workforce confidence and cross-organisational collaboration continue to undermine delivery.
As the NHS moves further into system working, integrated care and cross-sector data sharing, these non-technical challenges are becoming more visible and more consequential. The question facing NHS leaders is no longer whether interoperability matters, but how it is delivered sustainably, safely and at pace across real services.
Timeliness of the event:
InteropConnect 2026 takes place at a critical moment for NHS digital and operational leaders. National expectations are accelerating through programmes such as the NHS Data for Health and Care Strategy, the Federated Data Platform and the mainstreaming of genomics and population-level services
At the same time, organisations are under pressure to demonstrate tangible benefits from digital investment, while managing workforce fatigue, service recovery and increasing scrutiny on outcomes. Many systems are now moving beyond initial implementation into optimisation, assurance and scale, where leadership, governance and culture become decisive factors.
This event is timely because it focuses on the transition from policy and programmes into lived operational reality. It provides space for NHS leaders to reflect on what is genuinely enabling progress, what is holding it back, and how to strengthen delivery capability across organisations and systems.
Key discussions and event flow:
InteropConnect 2026 is structured to take delegates on a clear and deliberate journey from national direction into the real, day to day realities of delivering interoperability in practice
The morning establishes strategic context, beginning with the national perspective from NHS England, outlining current priorities, expectations and the direction of travel for interoperability across health and care
A genomics informatics session then brings national ambition into sharp focus through real delivery experience, using genomics as a live case study to explore how national services and standards are being tested with frontline organisations, and what this reveals about governance, assurance, workflow redesign and organisational readiness at scale
As the programme progresses, the focus intentionally shifts away from technology towards people, culture and leadership, examining how interoperability succeeds or fails based on human behaviour, trust, clarity of ownership and the ability to work across organisational boundaries, even when policy and commercial barriers are removed
The afternoon broadens the lens to system wide delivery, exploring interoperability across health and social care, surfacing the realities of aligning responsibilities, incentives and workflows across sectors, and highlighting the non technical barriers that most often slow progress, including confidence, governance maturity and change fatigue
The day concludes with a practical, experience led session focused on the human and organisational foundations of interoperability, reinforcing the core message that connected care is enabled by shared understanding, collaboration and cultural alignment, not systems alone
Why attend:
InteropConnect 2026 is designed for NHS leaders who are responsible for making interoperability work in practice, not just in principle.
Delegates will gain a clear understanding of how national ambition translates into operational delivery, grounded in real NHS experience rather than theory. The programme offers practical insight into governance, leadership and organisational readiness, helping attendees reflect on their own programmes and identify where focus is needed to unlock progress.
By the end of the day, delegates will leave with a coherent view of how strategy, leadership and everyday practice must align to deliver meaningful interoperability. The event provides a rare opportunity to step back from individual projects and consider interoperability as a system-wide capability, shaped as much by people and culture as by technology.
This makes InteropConnect 2026 a valuable forum for learning, reflection and peer exchange at a time when the NHS is under increasing pressure to turn connection into impact.
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