NOVEMBER 2013
T H E M A G A Z I N E F O R T H E U K H E A LT H I N F O R M AT I C S P R O F E S S I O N A L
Dr Gwyn Thomas appointed Chair of UKCHIP Part-time HI MSc: A student’s experience
IT Apprentice’s New Blog!
CPD on a Shoestring
NOVEMBER 2013
Professional Leadership - Filling the Vacuum in Health Informatics The Case for Change The existing landscape of national organisations representing informatics professionals is confusing, with duplication of functions, overlapping roles and responsibilities and unproductive, diverting organisational rivalries. There are also gaps – the most important being the absence of a regulatory framework that will ensure not only that the highest professional standards and codes exist but can be demonstrated independently that they are actually being adhered to in practice. Individual health informatics professionals have been let down by the lack of collective national professional leadership. As a result health informatics is often regarded as the ―lost tribe‖ amongst other NHS professionals. This unsatisfactory situation is now beginning to be recognised by the various national informatics professional bodies; there is a realisation that things must change and a growing appetite to do so. The Francis, Keogh and Berwick reviews emphasise that the status
CONTENTS Page 2—The Case for Change Page 3—HI Apprentice‘s Blog Page 4—CPD on a Shoestring Page 4—Transatlantic eHealth Page 6—EHI Live Conference Page 7—MSc Health Informatics Page 8—Conference/Events
quo in all its manifestations is not sustainable – this is equally true for health informatics. It is time for all of those who care about health informatics professionalism and who believe that it matters to the delivery of patient care, to work together and take collective, coherent action. In the last 10 years UKCHIP has had a positive impact on defining and raising professional standards ... but recognises that much more needs to be done. Concerted collective effort is required and UKCHIP is ready and willing to champion and contribute to the national collective leadership that is necessary to make radical changes, so that:the status and reputation of informatics can be enhanced informatics professionals feel valued and are able to make their full contribution to the safe delivery of integrated care, and the NHS can offer worthwhile careers in informatics to attract the best and brightest and retain the experienced and knowledgeable The Way Forward UKCHIP already playing its part in addressing the four major requirements for the profession: Sustainability: by creating an independent, financially sustainable, voluntary regulation and registration body for Health and Social Care informatics. Regulation: by building the national informatics regulatory framework for the professional informatics community involved in the provision of health and social care services. Professional Collaboration: by working closely with other professional bodies and organisations, to serve members and collectively promote and publicise the value of the contribution that the informatics profession makes to the safe and efficient delivery of all public services PAGE: 2
Education & Knowledge: helping to develop the informatics knowledge base by strengthening links with and between universities, colleges, employing organisations and all informatics professionals. Dr Gwyn Thomas appointed new Chair of UKCHIP As a first step in implementing these changes, we are pleased to announce that Dr Gwyn Thomas is to become the new Chair of the UKCHIP Board. Until his retirement at the end of August, Gwyn was the Chief Information Officer for Wales and Informatics Director for health and social services. In a statement Gwyn said: ―I intend to carry on promoting the value of informatics to the safe delivery of healthcare and to take advantage of new opportunities to try to continue to make a difference from another vantage point.‖ Dr Thomas has always supported the development of professionalism in health informatics and has been awarded an honorary chair in the medical school at Swansea University, helping to design and deliver educational programmes to build leadership skills for informatics professionals. Mik Horswell
Mik Horswell UKCHIP current Chair
Gwyn Thomas Chair elect
SOPHIE’S BLOG
NOVEMBER 2013
didn‘t appeal to me at the time as I was keen to get on the job experience beforehand, so the Hi all! scheme was the perfect opportunity I‘m Sophie and have been asked to for me to learn new skills and assert myself in a way that can benefit write a blog here on what I do. members of the public whilst thoroughly enjoying what I‘m doing I am an IT apprentice currently at the same time. working for the NHS, more specifically Aneurin Bevan Health Within the apprenticeship scheme Board; It‘s my job to take calls on the IT service desk in relation to PC‘s itself there are six other apprentices across the various health boards in and laptops across Aneurin Bevan Health Board. Whilst doing this I am Wales and we meet up to compare also undergoing qualifications to help and contrast our experiences to date, me further my career in health as well as this we attend skills informatics. programmes tailored to our interests I took an interest in IT in Sixth Form within our roles so far and also and studied it for A Level, University including elements that are expected to help us later on in our career such as interview technique, should I show a keen interest in a particular area within ABHB then it is often arranged by an assigned mentor for me to gain experience in that area. A great example of this is that I get to spend time in the private sector company ‗Logicallis‘ which is a fantastic opportunity to take in how private sector Informatics and public
sector work and implement these attributes into my work. Over recent weeks I have gained a far better understanding of how far we have come in terms of the storing of patient records from health records (libraries full to the brim with paper notes) to digital health records which is currently in process as part of a 2 year digital records project as shown in these pictures. Next time: My first day studying Health Informatics in Cardiff OU.
IT Apprenticeships in Wales Sophie is an apprentice on the NHS Wales Health Informatics Service (NWIS) IT apprenticeship. Following the development of the Health Informatics Career Framework (HICF), NWIS undertook a workforce survey of health informatics staff across Wales in 2010 and identified a number of gaps in entry routes into informatics. One of those gaps was at entry level and so an apprenticeship career pathway was developed. There are currently seven apprentices on the 18 month scheme, employed in a variety of health settings across Wales, including the Welsh Ambulance Service in North Wales and University of Wales Hospital, Cardiff. For more information see the NWIS website http://www.wales.nhs.uk/hiprofile/home PAGE: 3
Sophie Rogers
NOVEMBER 2013
CPD on a shoestring! Di Bullman and Jackie Smith One of the most common questions we get asked, both in our roles supporting UKCHIP (as Registrar and elected Council Member), and in our day jobs as Informatics Development Managers at the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC), is ‗how can I do CPD when I can‘t afford time away from my day job and my employer can‘t afford to pay for courses?‘ So, we thought we‘d put together a few ideas of where you can find information about CPD, help with planning, and links to short and free learning. We are developing a completely new section on CPD and personal / career development, on the new UKCHIP website (launch date imminent – watch this space). What is CPD? Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is systematic, ongoing, selfdirected learning. Its key features are planned and systematic updating of professional knowledge and improvement of personal competence. owned by you, emphasis on learning from a range of activities and the integration of learning and work - the concept of work as a learning experience emphasis on outcomes - answering the questions "what did you learn?" and "how do you plan to apply this learning?" - rather than simply "what learning event did you experience?" How can you decide what CPD to do? For your current job – have you had
a personal development review with your line manager? What new systems, software or organisational development do you need to keep up with? What ideas do you have for innovating in your area – do you need to develop skills for this? How can you improve what you currently do? For your development – is there a new role or area you are interested in? Look at the Health Informatics Career Framework (https:// www.hicf.nhs.uk) Check out potential roles on the HICF to identify development needs Login to the HICF and use My Learning to help you plan your development and possible career paths Create a self-assessment and compare against interesting roles to identify gaps
Look at job adverts / person specs that you might aim for in the future, and see what‘s needed. Do the UKCHIP self-assessment (via http://www.ukchip.org) – it will give you a report of areas of health informatics competence you might consider developing. Look at the NHS Leadership Academy website and particularly the Talent Management pages and ‗Conversation Guide‘. This can be used by and for, any level of staff, not just those aiming for leadership roles, to identify what sort of activities and support you need, to do the best in your role and to progress. (http:// www.leadershipacademy.nhs.uk/
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discover/talent-managementapproaches/) Talk to your mentor / manager / HR / colleagues and get feedback. What types of activities could you do? Arrange to work shadow a colleague or someone more senior and sign up to news sites / journals for newsletters and updates, for example: E-Health Insider (http:// www.ehi.co.uk) NHS Networks (http:// www.networks.nhs.uk) The Guardian Professional Networks (http:// www.theguardian.com/guardianprofessional) A number of different online networks, including one for healthcare professionals which often has informatics stories. Project and programme management – NHS Networks ‗Connecting Project and Programme Managers‘ site (http:// www.networks.nhs.uk/nhsnetworks/connecting-project-andprogramme-managers) BCS ASSIST – The Association of Informatics Professionals in Health and Social Care – has information and papers on the website and also runs local meetings and events. (http://www.bcs.org/assist UKCHIP – we have news, comments, links to development opportunities and useful websites (http://www.ukchip.org) Research a particular subject on the internet and write a paper or guidance document for collegues. Sign up for a mentor/become a mentee – find out if there‘s a scheme in your area. Learn new software by trying it out, reading the online guidance, getting a colleague to help you, looking up issues on online forums. Reflect on how you did a new piece of work – could you have done it differently? How would other (Continued on page 5)
Transatlantic eHealth Roadmap Progress Since the ‗roadmap‘ was released in the middle of 2013, an ‗innovative collaboration‘ is addressing two themes – interoperability and workforce mobility issues. The interoperability stream is a satisfactory development of long-running action. The workforce issues one is a newer focus; with a weekly webinar taking place for a couple of months. After sessions that gathered relevant artefacts and web addresses of curriculums and learning sources, last week‘s session took a ‗raincheck‘ and reviewed areas where the complexity and terminology may have differed from the EU to the
US. Comparing UKCHIP community constituencies against those of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) showed that we define under four quadrants of generic and domain-specialist professionalism and informatics whereas the US describes its population by different functional areas. These cover translational bioinformatics, clinical research informatics, clinical informatics, consumer health informatics, public health informatics and an emerging area of ‗operational informatics‘ which is a core area of UKCHIP activity. After these and other examples of differences (such as licensing of HI, competences and routes of entry) and an exploration of the mechanics of educational development methodologies next week, the participants will get back to identifying consistency and areas of sharing / exchange that will improve workforce opportunities for joint working and increased workforce mobility. Proof of concept of expressing necessary
NOVEMBER 2013 competences will be built on a platform of HI in an acute situation. The webinars are open to any interested party and the themes, slides and material identified each week are uploaded to the site – wiki.siframework.org/ Workforce+Development+Work+Gro up or the alternative Interoperability area within the framework. (Note: due to the recent challenges in the US government, the webinar schedule has been constrained for a few weeks but is now functioning again. The change to European 'winter' clocks also confused the situation.) Anyone who wishes to input is invited to contact Jean Roberts (jeanhcjean@gmail.com) for more details.
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colleagues have done it and could you learn anything from that? Some free online courses and support E-Learning for Healthcare – free online courses for NHS staff (available to those outside the NHS for a small charge). These are mostly clinical courses but
can provide useful background to a particular project. (www.elfh.org.uk) ‗Informed: an online introduction to the use of informatics in healthcare‘ – an e-learning course hosted on e-Learning for Healthcare. (http://www.elfh.org.uk/projects/healthinformatics/) eICE – a completely free elearning course of six modules covering the use of informatics in clinical practice. The course is also available as mobile apps. (www.cln.nhs.uk/eice) NHS IT Skills Pathway – MS Office Skills training for NHS staff (www.itskills.nhs.uk) Microsoft Office online tutorials (http://office.microsoft.com/enus/training/) Health informatics online course – the certificate in health
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Informatics is free but there is a charge to go on to further courses. (http://www.healthinformatics.co/) NHS National Learning Management System - for staff in NHS organisations – you can access this through your organisation if it is signed up to use the NLMS. For those in Wales, HI-Profile (Health informatics Professional Identity, Leadership and Education) Lots of information, events, contacts, networks and more. (http://www.wales.nhs.uk/hiprofile/home) Di Bullman dianebullman@hscic.gov.uk Jackie Smith Jackie.smith10@hscic.gov.uk
NOVEMBER 2013
EHI LIVE CONFERENCE Paperless working, a zero harm NHS and EHI‘s Big EPR Debate will all be high on the agenda at this year‘s EHI Live conference and exhibition on November 5-6 at the NEC, Birmingham. For the first time entry to the EHI conference streams will be entirely free with modest fees charged for some co-located, independentlyproduced meetings. EHI Live 2013 will bring together popular features from previous shows and new meetings and activities. This year‘s conference focuses on themes that are at the very centre of healthcare reforms in the UK with streams on The Big EPR Debate, health secretary Jeremy Hunt‘s call for a paperless NHS by 2018, and the challenges of Dame Fiona Caldicott‘s second review of information governance and information sharing. Giving delegates the chance to discuss these issues with like-minded people makes EHI Live 2013 an unmissable event.
frontline use of technology by IT staff and clinicians alike with a newly created app zone, a feature dedicated to use of open source technology, the co-location of the CCIO Leaders Network annual conference as well an exhibition that already features more exhibitors than last year. The exhibition floor will host popular features from previous shows, such as ‗The Pipeline‘, which gives suppliers a chance to show what is coming next in healthcare IT, and the Best Practice Showcase and EHI Awards Theatre, which highlight practical examples of good work going on in NHS trusts. The CCIO Leaders Network Annual Conference will also be co-located with EHI Live for the second year running, to promote the importance of clinical leadership in healthcare
EHI Live 2013 is more than a meeting, more than an exhibition. For anyone involved in the use of information in healthcare it‘s a golden opportunity to update knowledge, get answers to questions, meet the experts and think about the future. Now in its sixth year, EHI Live attracts visitors and delegates from around the UK and beyond who are keen to listen to industry figures and investigate new technologies. EHI Live continues to focus on the
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IT. Alongside it will run the inaugural Health CIO Annual Conference, in partnership with NHS England, which will address the critical role of the CIO as leader. The exhibition gives visitors the chance to see the best that NHS IT suppliers have to offer the health service, as it gets to grips with the need to save money while improving patient access and quality. The popular features also give visitors the chance to hear from industry leaders what will be available in the near-future, and the chance to hear from NHS trusts that have implemented successful projects just what can be achieved now. Register for free at www.ehilive.co.uk
MSc Health Informatics
inspirational and I came away totally wanting to change my world!
When we came home we had about four to six weeks to complete assignments which held some Part-time Learning at relevance to the lectures during the Swansea taught week. During the two years, there was a variety of assignments It was three years ago that I signed which consisted of a number of up for the MSc in Health Informatics. written essays, a presentation, a Unfortunately I did not have the practical project and technical work. luxury of giving up work completely I seem to remember that the wordnor was I able to take a year out so I count on the individual assignments choose the part-time option. came to no more than 5,000 words. Fortunately, this worked perfectly for In our final year we had to work me and I am now patiently (!?!) towards completing the Research waiting for my final results which Project Dissertation and reach the should be due in within the next 20,000 “jackpot” target! It was month or so. I work as an IT Project rather daunting and if I was Manager for Dorset HealthCare completely honest I was not sure University NHS Foundation Trust and whether I was actually ever going to I was also lucky enough to have two make it. colleagues to study, travel and live with during my time at Swansea. Unfortunately like many other students I had a couple of false The course has an excellent starts. Despite gaining ethical structure. The first and second years approval for a web application involve a full week of lectures taking project, I didn't manage to get this off place every two months—year one, the ground and so decided to Oct, Dec and Feb and year two Nov, refocus. In the end I opted for a Jan and March. The final year healthcare website evaluation consists of regular meetings with project. This meant that I was able your supervisor and mine were to work on my own and in my own mostly using video-conferencing time and not have to rely on others. facilities. The structure of the taught The evaluation consisted of a weeks meant that we could plan our literature review, analysing a number NHS work around our study weeks of website evaluation tools, putting and being every two months also together a selection criteria based on meant that it didn’t cause too much previous evidence and evaluating 36 disruption to our every-day lives. health-related websites. The week at college was filled with lectures on a whole variety of informatics topics, collaborating with other students, presentations, technical exercises and the downtime was spent pretending to be young again and for me in particular wishing I was back at University. It was definitely not a holiday because it was hard work during the daytimes but I really did look forward to the weeks at Swansea. As should be expected with an informatics course, some of the lectures are on relatively dry subjects but I found that I took something away from every single one. There were of course a few that were very
NOVEMBER 2013 As of the 2013 intake, the MSc in health informatics has a new look. There are now are number of optional modules which allows you to follow three distinct pathways. For those seeking academic development, the research pathway offers a specialist module on undertaking health informatics research. This is followed by a streamlined new dissertation where creating a research article is the aim. For data scientists of the future there are modules in linked health data provided in collaboration with the University of Western Australia. After undertaking these modules, the student can undertake a dissertation based on analysing existing big data sets. Finally, for those looking to develop their project management skills, a dedicated module and dissertation is available for them. The College of Medicine at Swansea University has recently been awarded Centre of Excellence status (one of only 4 in the UK) for its work in health informatics, making it even more attractive as a place to study. www.mschealthinformatics.swan.ac. uk for more information. Emma Gale, IT Project Manager and UKCHIP Council Member emma.gale@dhuft.nhs.uk
The final research project took about three months to complete with the majority of the work taking place during the summer. It is very achievable and by breaking it down into manageable chunks, I didn't really notice the word count growing. All of a sudden I had to start cutting down on the number of words. And so, on the 27th September 2013, I submitted my dissertation with 19,970 words and three days to spare. Swansea University is a great place to study. The format is great, the tutors, Tony Paget and Judy Jenkins are extremely encouraging and very supportive. PAGE: 7
Handing in the completed dissertation! Tony Paget, MSc Informatics Tutor and Emma Gale 27 September 2013, Swansea University
NOVEMBER 2013
Events and Conference Diary
18 - 19 November 2013 Clinical Trials Methodology Conference Edinburgh International Conference Centre The conference will provide a perfect forum for the exchange of new ideas amongst all individuals with an interest in clinical trials. Themes will include trial recruitment and retention, trial conduct, adaptive trial designs, stratified medicine, trial outcomes, and evidence synthesis. For full event and registration details see www.methodologyconference2013.org.uk
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BCS ASSIST Autumn Conference 2013 Delivering a paperless NHS: challenges and benefits Friday 15th November 2013 BCS Offices, 5 Southampton Street, London, WC2E 7HA
Register now
NOVEMBER 2013
20% discount for UKCHIP registrants and contacts Healthcare Conferences UK hold a number of healthcare informatics conferences for those working in or with an interest in healthcare IT and developing electronic systems to support quality, efficiency and the secure management of electronic records in the drive to deliver a paperless NHS by 2018. All courses provide up-to-date information on policy and practice and include details of the latest hardware and software solutions available to help you and your organisation get the most out of technology in order to meet ever increasing demand. A 20% discount is available to UKCHIP contacts by quoting ref: hcuk20UKCHIP when booking. (*Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer. Full T&Cs available upon request.) Forthcoming events include: Patient Experience Feedback: Developing real time systems as recommended by the Francis Inquiry 4 December 2013, Manchester Electronic Prescribing In Hospitals: Moving Forward 10 December 2013, London Radiology Information Systems and PACS 11 December 2013, London Data Quality and Clinical Coding for Improvement 14 January 2014, London You can book online via the links above or email your details to Gemma@hc-uk.org.uk
UK Health Informatics Forum Bristol, 5th December 2013 Reducing Health Delivery Costs through Implementation of ICTs The UK Health Informatics Forum is very different to larger exhibitions and conferences, the combination of limiting the numbers to 100 delegates with the unique structure and format of the Forum allows Health Experts real quality one-on-one time with the most influential Government, Public and Private Sector Officials in the Health industry here are no booths or sales presentations, the focus of the Forum is to put decision makers together who have a common interest, to improve transparency between stakeholders and importantly allow time to explore opportunities to improve service delivery to the citizen. For an event brochure, please contact Lizzie Morgan - Event Manager, t. +441172 232172 or e. lizzie.morgan@estratevents.com
will be attending the EHI Live on 5th and 6th November Come and see us to discuss any aspects of informatics Professionalism. Stand C06
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NOVEMBER 2013
UKCHIP is the regulatory body for health informatics professionals, established to promote professionalism in health informatics. We are a non-profit making independent organisation.
Contact us:
We publish an online register of health informatics professionals who meet our clearly defined standards of competence and agree to work to a professional code of conduct.
Mik Horswell marketing@ukchip.net Di Bullman registrar@ukchip.net Tel: 0113 397 4384 Helen Davies admin@ukchip.net Tel: 0844 870 7902
Registration is open to anyone currently working in health informatics regardless of sector. This includes; the NHS, the private health care sector, commercial suppliers to the NHS, academic institutions, social enterprise organisations or the voluntary sector. View and search the public register of accredited health informatics professionals at www.ukchip.org
Write to us at: P.O. Box 66 Usk NP15 9AJ Registered in England & Wales, No. 4771281
Visit our website at www.ukchip.org
‗The importance of informatics to the delivery of safe, high quality and effective services has never been more important. Professionalism in informatics and all that goes with it is at the heart of our vision for safe, technology enabled, and patient centred care. Both the Francis Report and more recently the Keogh Review identified a range of informatics and leadership related issues that indicate a need for stronger leadership and more and better data and information management specialists. Working with our partners, we will support the development of UKCHIP to reflect the needs and expectations of the new NHS and NHS employers. We have to be able to show we are professionals in the same way that other groups in health and care do. And employers need to expect their informatics staff to be accredited or work towards accreditation with an appropriate body. A number of organisations offer appropriate registration opportunities but, UKCHIP is the only registration body for informatics in health, which is why we want to support its development. There are other organisations that have a role here as well, for example in providing continued professional development. The important thing is to be registered with an appropriate body. There should be an element of choice.‘ Beverley Bryant, Director of Strategic Systems and Technology at NHS England
We have a logo for registrants to use on their email signatures or personal website, and a free lapel badge. If you would like a badge or copy of the logo please email admin@ukchip.net
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