Hi everyone,
It’s great to have joined this online community.
I have grown ever more frustrated working within our health system at the frontline, which has motivated me to explore opportunities to be part of the drive to evolve our health system to meet the populations ever-changing needs.
I feel like I have been increasingly hemmed in by the construct that is my professional scope (physio) and I feel like I am at the boundary walls trying to clamber over, or bound over if I can find a trampoline with enough spring recoil.
There is a wealth of knowledge and information on here and I am particularly interested in the people that sit behind that knowledge. My experiences will likely relate most to the clinicians in this community and I would be delighted to hear some of your experiences on how you have navigated the journey into this healthcare space. For a relative newcomer like myself, I believe that these narratives are incredibly valuable, as I have no doubt we share a lot of the same experiences and motivations.
With this in my mind, I would like to pose a few questions to the community;
What motivated your decision to move into the digital health space?
How have you utilized your clinical experience to better influence the creation of systems and delivery of service using digital health tools?
Where do you see the influence and leadership of clinicians having the biggest impact on the future of the digital health space?
Hello @garrydillon08. I feel your pain. A good starting place would be the book The Health Information Workforce Current and Future Developments.
If you don’t have university library access, let me know which chapters you’re interested in and I’ll send you a copy of the chapters. There are some chapters that provide case studies of how people became clinical informatics specialists that could give you some good ideas.
Is there any way we could have an electronic copy made available to logged in users of the eHealth Forum? In my mind the Forum would then function as a Library, and make it explicit that it is not to be shared with non-members.
Of course we don’t have much of a budget for that sort of thing, but perhaps we could combine resources / pass the hat around? Or maybe even one of the esteemed authors might be interested in donating access?
Can you clarify what you mean by ‘frustrated working within our health system at the frontline’? What are your frustrations? What is not working well for you or the patient?
Hi Kim
Thank you for asking. I’m happy to share some of my thoughts which tip between observations and frustrations.
At a personal level I feel I have reached the outer boundaries of my scope of practice. I believe this limits my ability to utilize my full potential in supporting individuals within the health system. I feel a natural evolution for me is to move into a position where I can combine my clinical insights and natural abilities, to collaborate with others to help evolve the wider health ecosystem.
I see huge potential for positive changes at multiple levels of our health matrix. Many of these topics are already mixed throughout various conversations on this forum. In no particular order some of my key observations include:
The need for wide-reaching strategies to improve overall health literacy and digital literacy for the population so healthcare shifts more towards patient ownership and empowerment.
Healthcare professionals supported with the necessary resource and training to integrate new digital systems, that actually improve their overall work experience.
Better integration of health and government services to address many of the social and psychological factors which are intertwined with our health and wellbeing.
The need for greater connection between science/research and frontline delivery of health care services; in particular tied in with long-term chronic condition management.
Greater integration of predictive analytics into forward planning and management of peoples healthcare pathway.
Hi @NathanK. I’ve spoken to a copyright expert and she says that from a copyright perspective it’s not a good idea to set up a library for CiLN because you’ll have to go through a lot of copyright hoops for each item.
In terms of making my book available, I need to get in touch with the publisher and get permission to share an online copy with the CiLN community - I’ll be in touch as soon as I hear from them.
@garrydillon08 you’ve hit on important aspects of digital health that researchers, strategists and practitioners have been working on for a long time. Now, with the current reform occurring, is a good time for the CiLN community to use their voice to promote them.
A good way to start might be to write a white paper on the items in your list that directly affect clinicians. I’d be happy to work with you on the writing. Who else would like to join?
Thank you for sharing with us some of your personal journey and desire to move beyond your perceived clinical boundaries (your metaphors of the wall and the trampoline are apt!).
I am not a clinician (though nearly became one at the start of my career). I am an engineer by training and vaulted over my professional boundaries into IT around 30 years ago. IT took some additional courseware and I am happy to reflect that it has been well worth it.
You might ask - what is an engineer doing in health? To explain this, I will attempt to answer your excellent questions:
What motivated your decision to move into the digital health space?
My move into the Health IT space has been motivated from my family background (a father who was a paediatrician, my mother a nurse and two brothers who are GPs). I have worked in the oil, telco, insurance sectors and wanted to finish my career in health.
How have you utilized your clinical experience to better influence the creation of systems and delivery of service using digital health tools?
I bring with me extensive industry experience in the creation of new IT systems, typically integrated with existing systems in corporate environments. Although health has unique challenges, the principles of creating, integrating and retiring systems is the same whatever the industry. Earlier in my career, I spent 9 months working as a nurse in a military hospital. Over the years I have also keenly observed the processes and systems used by the health system and have reflected on ways they can be improved - both from a clinician and, most importantly, a patient point of view.
Where do you see the influence and leadership of clinicians having the biggest impact on the future of the digital health space?
I am going to answer this question as an engineer and IT expert. I have made many personal contacts with clinicians over the 4 years I have worked in NZ health. The most important thing, I believe, is for clinicians to advocate for better, more consistent and reliable information systems and medical equipment that improves the flow of the health system. In other words, provide well articulated requirements to the IT experts whose role is to design and build modern, reliable and safe IT systems. It is a collaborative effort. A third, and key part of the equation, is funding. This has to cover both new technology acquisition but also support the the evolving operating model (the people and processes changes). So, clinicians who move into Informatics should look to new ways of doing things, have a clear set of requirements backed by funding and work collaboratively with the IT community, starting first with people in Te Whatu Ora who now have the largest IT capability in NZ.
