CxIO team brings insights of clinical work to IT team

THE MEETING OF TWO WORLDS

As digital health leaders, the CxIO team bring insights of clinical work to the IT team

Over the past 30 years, information technology has transformed many industries, resulting in better products, better services, and greater e ciencies. Unfortunately, compared to many other sectors, healthcare has lagged behind in the pace at which it has adopted digital technologies to realise the same benefits.

Moreover, despite Ireland being an internationally recognised technology hub, and housing many of the global leaders in internet technologies such as Google and Microsoft here in our capital, in the sphere of healthcare Ireland has trailed behind in its ability to embrace digital technologies, clinging to paper and pen and traditional ways of working far longer than many other countries.

Today, however, the tide is changing. There is greater recognition of how technology is an integral part of the running of all services in healthcare, and how using data and digital technologies can advance comprehension of human health and disease, and improve delivery of care. We are also learning how our failure to adopt and invest in technology in our health service is costing us daily, both financially and in the quality of care we deliver.

The challenge to embracing information technology (IT) in healthcare requires the meeting of two very distinct worlds, often with limited insight into each other. On one hand is the world of doctors, nurses, and health and social care professionals, trained to consider the patient in front of them, and requiring an understanding of soft skills and human emotion. On the other is the world of IT – one built on numbers, code, and binary questions. According to an OECD report, the limited understanding of the other’s world is often the reason that new IT innovations in healthcare fail, such as when healthcare professionals lack the skills and knowledge necessary to use digital tools; or when work processes in healthcare do not allow digital technology to add value; or when healthcare workers have not been involved in the design of the digital tool, rendering the tool unfit for purpose.

From the need for clinical care and IT systems to meet, the area of Clinical Informatics was born.

Clinical Informatics, also referred to as Health Informatics, is the interdisciplinary study of data, information and computing technology, and communication with respect to human health conditions. This includes understanding, developing, integrating, and applying IT innovations to advance comprehension of human

The CxIO team: Emer O’Shea, Emma Cooney, Markus Hesseling and Moninne Howlett.

"From the need for clinical care and IT systems to meet, the area of Clinical Informatics was born"

health and the delivery of health and social care. However, if Clinical Informatics was meant to be the bridge that linked healthcare and IT, as a term it serves to only further alienate one from the other. Thus the more human-centric term “digital health” was developed, defined as the use of information and communications technologies in medicine and other health professions to manage illnesses and health risks and promote wellness. While fundamentally similar in meaning to Clinical Informatics, the term “digital health” is more accessible to the wider healthcare workforce. Digital health articulates that healthcare remains at the centre, while bringing it into the digital age.

The CxIO Team

With the move to the new Children’s Hospital, Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) is embarking on a journey to become one of the world’s leading digital paediatric hospitals. To lead this journey, a Digital Health Department is being formed, within which is situated the CxIO team, comprising clinical information o cers from di erent disciplines: a chief medical information o cer (CMIO), a chief nursing information o cer (CNIO), a chief health and social care professionals information o cer (CHIO), and a chief pharmacy information o cer (CPIO).

These clinical information o cers work alongside technical IT sta , serving as clinical representatives. As such, the CxIO team members are digital health leaders for clinical sta , bringing insights of clinical work to the IT team. They have first-hand experience of the reality of delivering clinical care, and through this they bring a focus and an understanding of the end-user needs. They understand the challenges of working clinically, and know what matters to sta and patients alike. Importantly, they are also seen as allies for clinical colleagues, and can help with engagement along the digital health journey.

" They have first-hand experience of the reality of delivering clinical care, and through this they bring a focus and an understanding of the end-user needs"

The journey ahead

The CHI CxIO team is tasked with driving forward new digital technologies and ways of working to benefit clinical teams and patients. As part of this, the priority areas for the CxIO team include: • The design and implementation of the clinical systems for the new hospital • Engaging with children, young people, carers, and sta to understand their wants and needs • Promoting and establishing digital research and innovation in CHI • Building digital skills and capabilities in the workforce

As a new team, working in the developing area of digital health, the exact path that lies ahead is uncertain. The journey will no doubt be challenging, but it will certainly be an exciting venture. The digital hospital is just the beginning from which true digital innovation and transformation can grow, and the CxIO team intends to position themselves at the forefront of this journey.

Meantime, as the route is being determined, the vision of the CxIO remains clear and simple: to use digital technologies and digital ways of working to improve health, experience, and access for children, young people, and their carers. Ultimately, this is what digital health means: using technology for better outcomes and experiences for the patients we care for.