FHINZ profile - Gabe Rijpma

FHiNZ PROFILE - Gabe Rijpma, chief executive Aceso

Describe your career to date and how that led you to be a Fellow of HiNZ?
I got to play on my first computer at a friend's house when I was 10 and was hooked. This led to my career path in tech and for very personal reasons I also became passionate about health. Health is a complex system problem that I found intellectually stimulating. I was at Microsoft at the time and was asked to lead the health business for Asia. Digital and health is now all I know and I have made digital health my life work too.

What does being nominated and accepted as a Fellow mean to you?
It is a positive recognition of a journey well served doing what you are passionate about. In digital health and informatics, it is a small cohort of people that grow up together. It's an honour to be recognised by people who also spend their days arguing with computers, clinicians and trying to make health better. It's heartening to be part of a group that has health informatics tattooed on their hearts. The hard work continues though, because if we don't inspire the next generation, who will help us when we forget our passwords?

What is your advice to other digital health specialists who are thinking of nominating themselves or others?
Being a Fellow isn't just about having the right keyboard shortcuts. You need to have long-term dedication to healthcare's transformation—from electronic records to AI diagnostics. If you've been in the trenches, implemented or developed solutions that doctors/nurses/patients actually use (and understand!), and have an ongoing passion project like "How to Make Electronic Health Records as Addictive as Social Media"—you're ripe for nomination. In my mind, if you see digital health and informatics as your calling - apply.

What’s your favourite piece of technology at home and why?
There is so much tech here it's hard to have a favourite. My new Proxmox box is running all sorts of containers and VM's for home automation tasks such as irrigation, lighting, curtains, solar and media. It's my current pet project. Just simplifying life, reducing energy consumption and automating tasks I would have to do manually, is a lot of fun. It provides me new free time to do other geeky things and spend time with my family.


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