Message from the Chair of HiNZ-NMI
Welcome to the next edition of the HiNZ-NMI newsletter!
The HiNZ Leadership Summit a few weeks ago was exceptional. The format allowed for plenty of talking and plenty of listening - a perfect mix. I have written a brief report in this newsletter. It was humbling to be around such intelligent, dedicated and friendly people. I truly felt privileged to be there. The highlight for me however, was connecting and chatting with friends. We shared some great stories and got to know each other better. I feel that the future of digital health in NZ is in great hands. In every discussion, it always came back to the patient. They are at the center of what we do, and that was front and center at this summit. The dates for 2024 have been released -14th and 15th May, 2024 in Wellington. If you get the opportunity to attend, I highly recommend it.
Enjoy this latest read.
Emma Collins (@emma.collins)
Chair of HiNZ Nursing & Midwifery Informatics Special Interest Group (HiNZ-NMI)
HiNZ-NMI Updates and News
View from the Inside
Digital Health Technology - the brighter future
As a nurse on the floor, early on in my career, I never really thought about data and technology as being part of my job. Strange to say that considering what I now do for a living but we didnât think about it. Our education taught us the art and science of nursing but it didnât really touch on the technology of nursing. In our work we focussed on the patient and whanau, if technology existed it was in the background or someone elseâs problem. However, time has marched inexorably on. Technology is now rapidly out pacing our ability to ignore it. Digital health technologies and data are already everywhere. Itâs in the capacity-at-a-glance dashboards, acuity scores and variance management, its in whiteboards showing COVID vaccination status, ePrescribing tools, electronic observations and documentation. New Digital health technology is also coming, with Artificial Intelligence and large language models such as Chat GPT and health data increasingly being used to aid decision making such as recent discussion on equity adjustment tools. Patients may no longer come in with a printout from Doctor Google but come with a pre-prepared diagnosis from Chat GPT!
When we donât recognise technology in health, we risk missing the opportunity to use data, the insights from data and the technological tools to make our jobs easier and to provide us with more time to do what we really want to, provide great patient/whanau care. We also risk not keeping pace with advancements that our patients will expect us to know about and help guide them through.
Itâs challenging though, many nurses have little or no training in digital health at undergraduate level, better people than me are addressing this now. We need to engage better with technology with more nurses in health informatics to help inform and drive changes that are fit for our modern healthcare system. We need to recognise the importance of digital health technology and embrace it so that we can reap its benefits, be aware of its pitfalls and help our patients and Whanau navigate itâs use. There is an important place for nursing in discussion and designing digital health technology. With the first National Chief Clinical Informatics Officer in New Zealand being appointed to Te Whatu Ora the stage is set for clinical informatics to take itâs place as a force for ensuring digital health technology is user centred.
Itâs a brave new world out here in digital health. Itâs not the dark side but a brighter future and here at NMI, we are embracing it. If you are looking to take a step toward digital health technology I encourage you to jump in. There are people to help and support you.
Karen Shaw (@karenshaw)
Clinical Informatics Manager, ICT
Capital, Coast, Hutt Valley, Wairarapa
Te Whatu Ora
Here is a short summary of Karenâs journey into health informatics:
So, who am I. I am a nurse, having trained in UK before emigrating to New Zealand in 2004. I have now nursed in New Zealand longer than I did n the UK and my journey has been marked by awesome people, awesome teams and awesome opportunities. My first clinical jobs were as an emergency department nurse. I helped set up the Emergency nurse practitioner service in the UK and managed twenty ENPs before I came to New Zealand. I then helped lead the establishment of the Clinical Nurse Specialist Minor Injuries service at Hutt Hospital. I then took up a two and a half year contract teaching undergraduate nursing at Massey University before giving both roles up to become the Nurse Coordinator Professional development at Hutt (and Wairarapa for a short time). I suppose I have always been interested in technology, for most of my life, having grown up with computers since childhood but I also have a passion for teaching and enabling others to use technology to make their lives easier. I have been involved in eLearning and helped set up the ePortfolio for nurses at Hutt as well as supporting and teaching colleagues what I know. I knew that clinical informatics was ultimately where I wanted to be and I am passionate about digital health technology being an enabling tool for clinicians to make their working lives easier and help them spend more time doing what they love, caring for patients and whanau. I was incredibly lucky to meet Steve Earnshaw CCIO for Capital, Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa. His tireless work to develop a multidisciplinary clinical informatics team led to me apply for and being successful in getting my current role. In the past three years we have recruited and developed a team, we have built relationships with ICT and a large number of local, regional and national teams clinical and otherwise. We have made great strides in ensuring decisions made are done so with clinical users and clinical outcomes at the forefront. I now provide my clinical expertise and insights into the Cybersecurity Governance group and the Whanau, Consumer, Clinician Digital Council as well as into local and regional project groups. I have learnt more, gained more and contributed more to this role than I thought possible and I continue to learn more every day. I am looking forward to being a part of a new age of clinical informatics, with a new national CCIO and a range of clinical informaticians providing similar value across Te Whatu Ora and beyond.
Wrap up from Digital Health Summit
On the 30th and 31st May this year, people from the digital health sector in New Zealand gathered in Wellington for the HiNZ Digital Health Summit. This was a meeting of the minds, and there was plenty to talk about.
The event was MCâd by @john.ashley and he kept the full programme moving. After a welcome, @timc (HiNZ CEO) engaged us in some whakawhanaungÄtanga, and connected us. He challenged us to be a catalyst for change in the digital health sector. The first keynote speaker was the Hon. Dr Ayesha Verall. She acknowledged that the workforce is the biggest challenge, and that they are also the healthcare sectors biggest asset. Another notable talk was from Leah Donoghue, Chief of Data and Digital at Te Whatu Ora. He challenged us to create the future - equity led, simplify to unify, platform and agile, create the capability and capacity for change, change happens at the speed of trust. Robyn Kamira from Te Aka Whai Ora asked us to follow the data, and to consider needs (eg, diversity, inclusions and outcomes) and rights (eg, ToW). She stated that data is fuel for better outcomes, and the right data needs to be at the right time, in the right hands. On day 2, we heard from Sonny Taite, National Chief Information Security Officer at Te Whatu Ora. He acknowledged that personnel are a challenge in this area and equity needs to be addressed.
We also heard from Dr Shane Reti, who reminded us that he remains a practicing clinician, and talked to us about his extensive background in digital health. He talked about outcomes, and the importance that this is necessary. He also stated that we need to improve health IT literacy before we can effect change.
There were many other speakers, including our very own Kate Yeo who participated in a panel about clinical informatics leadership. There was also 20 round table discussions and over the two days we were able to participate in 10 of these. Topics included artificial intelligence, co-designing with communities, telehealth, clinical communications, virtual healthcare, hosting and security, and workforce development, as well as other topics. Summaries of the topics discussed will be distributed to delegates.
Overall it was an inspiring, high energy, intelligent summit with great food. I would highly recommend applying to attend in 2024.
Emma Collins (@emma.collins)
Final words from @timc:
Mentoring
The HiNZ NMSIG are seeking feedback on the view of mentoring. The group are keen to understand if there is any interest in having mentoring for nurses who want to develop their nursing role/career within clinical informatics/health technology in New Zealand.
- Are you interested in having a mentor to help you navigate your nursing role using health technology/clinical informatics?
- Yes
- No
- Maybe
- If so, how do you see this would work?
Please comment on the discussion forum here
New website
If you havenât seen this already, please take a look and promote with your communities
This site is used to get free data from a number of sites - removing access barriers for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.
Whatâs been happening on the eHealth forum
Take a read of these articles and comment on these threads:
Te Whatu Ora moving to fewer and better platforms:
https://ehealthforum.nz/t/te-whatu-ora-moving-to-fewer-better-national-platforms-and-services/29481
Clinical portals and patient safety:
https://ehealthforum.nz/t/connecting-clinical-portals-will-improve-patient-safety/29480
Interesting publication regarding hospital productivity:
https://ehealthforum.nz/t/value-in-healthcare-measured-through-productivity/29478
Learning & Development
Addressing pressures on the health system - digital solutions
Pressures on the health workforce are mounting, with multiple administrative, communication and care coordination tasks increasingly taking time away from frontline care. This webinar explores how technology can help to lift this pressure and support the workforce to deliver better patient care, with a particular focus on nursing, aged care and rural care.
Register here for the webinar!
New publications from the Nursing and Midwifery Community of Practice
Latest newsletter from IMIA NI - June
IMIA Newsletter June 2023 (1).pdf (1.0 MB)
Upcoming Events
National Events
If you are interested in getting together (most events are in-person!) with others in the health informatics space, please do consider attending the following:
International events
(as noted from International Medical Informatics Association: Nursing Informatics Special Interest Group)
- MedInfo 2023: 7-12 July, Sydney, Australia
- MedInfo24 is being held in Manchester, UK. The theme is âApplied nursing informatics: Innovations in the practice of nursing informaticsâ
Register your interest now! https://ni2024.org/
Please let us know if you have any other news or events to share as a reply to this.
About HiNZ-NMI
The HiNZ nursing & midwifery informatics special interest group (HiNZ-NMI) supports the development of nursing informatics in New Zealand. HiNZ-NMI meets on the eHealth Forum and publishes a free eNewsletter with digital health updates of relevance to nurses.
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What is nursing informatics?
Nursing Informatics science and practice integrates nursing, its information and knowledge and their management with information and communication technologies to promote the health of people, families and communities world-wide.