60-Second CiLN member profile – Nathan Billing

NEWS + Nathan Billing, product owner for Clinical and Business applications at Auckland DHB

Could you explain what your role entails?
I am a product owner for Clinical and Business applications at ADHB.   

I help bridge the gap between business and technical product teams helping manage how technology is used to meet our customers demand. This includes defining product direction and feature prioritisation to meet demand and developing feature roadmaps.  

This is a varied role and involves working with our teams to help improve our Microsoft power apps, to managing the user provisioning and support for our Zoom telehealth application, to supporting some of our telehealth hardware an larger multidisciplinary VC rooms, to helping connecting systems owners to the teams that are managing the migration of some of our systems to IAAS.   

What parts of digital health interest you the most?
Application and systems integration and their usability. 

Having worked in this space for over 8 years these links and integrations are vital for information to flow between systems for them to be useful. For these to work effectively we need to adhere to standards, and I am privileged to be part of the national ISO/TC 215 Health informatics national mirror committee that will be looking at some or the international standards and how we can apply them here in New Zealand.

What projects are you currently involved in?
I am working closely with our IT service provider health alliance to cost up and plan various system upgrades. I have also been working on helping establish new support for some of the office 365 power applications that have been developed and deployed for use.

I have also been working with other regional telehealth leads to define technical requirements for multidisciplinary team videoconference meetings.

If you could have any other job, what would it be?
Working with blockchain technology to build patient records and manage identity on blockchain. There is some interesting stuff happening in this space and the future for this technology looks great.  

If you have one piece of advice for other digital health leaders, what would it be?
Don’t underestimate the importance of funding to make things happen, CAPEX funding is easier to get but do not overlook the ongoing OPEX cost to keep it going. Doing things on the cheap and trying to help get things across the line without proper funding can cause more problems than good.  

Also, always check in with a range of system users before trying to implement changes, sometimes those driving the change are not close to how the system is used, taking people with you on the journey helps make it easier to implement.

What’s your favourite piece of technology at home and why?
Smart speaker, great to have voice control for internet radio and Spotify while cooking. It’s also great for weekends at home listening to radio paradise.

Who would you like to play you in a film?
That is a hard one it would be either Maverick, because it would be great to get to fly an actual fighter jet. Or Jeffery "The Dude" Lebowski, because who wouldn't want to be the dude.

If you would like to provide feedback on this profile, please contact the editor Rebecca McBeth.

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