What are the main digital workstreams the trust will be looking to deliver through the Global Digital Exemplar programme?
AC: The Trust is focused on four main workstreams:
a) The delivery of an infrastructure upgrade as the underpinning item for an upgrade to the latest version of our Epic system. In addition this will deliver even stronger enhanced cybersecurity aspects.
b) Working towards the enhanced analytics and reduction in unwanted clinical variation with associated quality improvement that will support us in achieving HIMSS EMRAM Stage 7status by building on our current stage 6 status.
c) Working with our community partners to foster new and meaningfully different ways of working collaboratively to communally deliver high quality care to our patients supported by technology. We see true standards based interoperability as the ultimate goal with portal type infrastructure as a temporary stepping stone to that.
d) The extension / further development of our research capabilities in conjunction with a whole range of partners including the University of Cambridge, the European Bioinformatics Institute, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and others including technology and pharmaceutical partners building on the very rich structured and unstructured phenotype data that we know have on our patients after essentially three years of live use of our Epic system.
Have you started working with University College London Hospitals as part of the fast follower scheme on their deployment of Epic?
AC: The Trust has been working closely with UCLH as it has developed its Fast Follower agreement. We have agreed a strategy for defining a programme of work; multiple conversations and face-to-face meetings between the two institutions involving all staff groups and all grades of staff have already taking place and continue to do so. We believe that this will be a very fruitful relationship between the two hospitals.
Have you identified any sites that you'd like to work with as part of the Global Digital Exemplar programme on an international level?
AC: The wider Epic customer community is a very supportive one and we have been learning from a whole range of international hospitals. In return we have shared our learning and configuration with others. We are though working more closely with Duke University Hospital at present and would expect to develop this relationship over time.
It has recently been announced that Dr Zafar Chaudry is moving on in November from his role as Chief Information Officer at the trust to become the Senior Vice President and CIO of Seattle Children's Hospital in the US. What approach will you take to appoint a new CIO?
AC: At present the Trust is reviewing its approach to our current work programme in respect of digital. A number of significant changes are planned particularly around the current infrastructure retender and our Global Digital Exemplar programme. We will in due course be looking to appoint a new CIO but no firm decisions regarding the exact timing of that have been made whilst we finalise our longer-term approach. Certainly Zafar's impact on the Trust has been both striking and beneficial and we are extremely sorry to see him leave - it will be hard to find a new CIO of a similar calibre.
Lastly, how will you support the HIMSS UK organisation and its strategy through the advisory board to accelerate the development of a digital health ecosystem across the UK and Ireland?
AC: I am firm believer in sharing our experiences with others, and in return hearing from them about their challenges, approaches and successes. We all have much to learn and deliver in this arena if we are to deliver sustained high quality care for our patients.
Communal learning, without each of us reinventing solutions for the same problems each time has to be the way forward especially as the population ages and the demands on healthcare systems grows. Both the Trust and I are deeply committed to facilitating this learning whether it be for individuals or the wider system through meetings, onsite visits, supporting the new Digital Academy and the Faculty of Clinical Informatics, and beyond.
Engaging with all grades of staff, all professional groups and, most important of all, with the patients themselves will benefit us all and I believe that HIMSS UK is ideally placed to facilitate all of this going forward. In this context I am therefore delighted to accept a place on the new HIMSS UK Advisory Board.
