CIO Interview: Culture is key to digital transformation

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Picture: Southern DHB executive director people, culture & technology Mike Collins

Southern DHB executive director people, culture & technology Mike Collins

As part of our series of columns from health CIOs, Mike Collins describes how Southern DHB is using digital technology to create improved health pathways and equity of service.

What is the biggest project you are currently working on?

That would have to be the new Dunedin Hospital. This is an extremely exciting opportunity to lead the digital and workforce aspects of one of New Zealand’s largest infrastructure investments in health.

We want to work in partnership with other regions and the Ministry of Health to ensure that as we develop the new ‘smart hospital’ we are co-designing innovative solutions for the future. We are currently in the discovery phase, establishing the scope and defining what the IT blueprint will be for the future.

We are taking a human-centred, persona-based approach to design, and engaging with patients, staff and the community, overlaying how technology will enhance the patient and staff experience.

Our approach is to introduce new technologies over the next four years, bringing the community and staff across the region on a journey of creating improved health pathways and equity of service. This future experience will be enhanced via enabling technologies and investing in the tāngata, our people.

What is the greatest challenge to you in your role and how do you work to overcome that?

The role encompasses information technology, human resources, health, safety and welfare, and organisational culture, so the greatest challenge and also opportunity is the variety of work.

I overcome the variability and breadth of responsibilities via working with an amazing team of talented staff. Our team understand their roles and responsibilities and we have a sense of trust and understanding in how we work. This openness is establishing a strong culture within the portfolio. We need our culture to be strong for us to succeed; moving forward culture is key.

How has the role of the CIO changed during your time in the healthcare sector and what is the greatest driver of that change?

I attended a conference many years ago where the term chief information officer was suggested as being a role that would be redefined as the chief digital officer, and we see this today. As IT moves to more of an ‘as a service’ model, the role of the traditional CIO has changed from a technology infrastructure guru to a more generalist role with greater focus on the customer/consumer experience.

I believe that our role now and into the future is one that is focused on people and defining how technology can enable change, not only in improved productivity but also in changes in the way people behave.

People’s expectations of service delivery are changing to a model of services aligned to their place, time or virtual space, and we need to be able to adapt so that we meet these new expectations.

How important is it to have clinicians engaged in health IT projects? What are the benefits of strong clinical leadership in this area and how do you ensure you have that?

It’s vital. We try and ensure that we have clinical engagement and leadership on all of our projects. We need to be working on partnership with our clinical colleagues, patients and unions to gain true transformational change that is sustainable and adopted.

Being able to engage with clinical staff who are passionate about the future and what could be is the first step to enabling change in the healthcare environment.

I see the roles of health informatics and business analysts as examples of roles that can establish strong professional relationships with clinical staff. I still hear too many implementations of IT solutions where clinical staff have not had appropriate levels of engagement and therefore expectations are not met.

We have embedded clinical leadership into our projects, operations for IT, IT governance structures and community health council engagement.

Where do you see your DHB in five or 10 years’ time in terms of its digital journey and what are the major milestones to get there?

Significantly different from today. Within five years it will not just be the emerging technologies but also the patient-driven models of care.

I worked within the education sector for 17 years, and the transformation of academic staff moving from the holder of knowledge to that of a facilitator of knowledge and students taking ownership for their education was a significant change, a change that transformed the landscape of roles and traditional education models.

I can see the same transformation slowly moving into health, where clinical staff are still subject matter experts but also facilitators of a patient’s healthcare, as patients gain greater access to their health information and health pathways.

To develop this new future we have two new strategies, the workforce and digital strategies. These have been triggered, in part, through the Dunedin Hospital redevelopment process, but also in line with the aspirations we have recently articulated in our Primary and Community Care Strategy, which has been a significant driver. The new strategy and action plans now complete the suite of strategic plans and paint the vision for our way forward.

The workforce and digital plans will bring together complementary information in one place using a patient- and staff-centric design approach. The ultimate goal is to create a sustainable and contemporary workforce and digital experience that transforms our staff and patients’ experiences, as well as improving workplace culture.

This work is being carried out in partnership with health agencies across our region and facilitated by Southern District Health Board. In order to provide our community with their health information and new models of care (through technology and innovation) we need to form lasting relationships with all of our health partners.

The strategy and action planning within our region is aligned to the South Island and national programmes of work specific to workforce and technology enablement.

Add author in italics at end of article following this style:
Mike Collins is the Southern DHB’s executive director people, culture & technology.

Read more CIO Interviews:

Darren Manley: The key to health system transformation: Good old-fashioned teamwork

Stella Ward: Our digital health system