CiLN Advisory Panel Update - April 2022

NEWS – CiLN Advisory Panel Member Steven Earnshaw

Kia ora koutou,

I hope that you have all remained safe and well through the past few months with the huge omicron surge that has swept through the country. I’m sure that you have all been really busy both providing clinical care, and also as clinical informaticians supporting a myriad of urgent changes to digital systems to help with the Covid response. It is amazing to see the number and scale of the many digital projects across the country that have been developed and implemented at an unprecedented pace. I know that we in clinical informatics have played key roles in enabling this rapid progress, and I am hopeful that the wider system is increasingly aware of the value that we bring.

The advisory panel, along with the high level stakeholder engagement groups, have had two very positive meetings with members of the Transition Unit to discuss the role of clinical informatics in the new Health NZ structure. Final details are yet to be released, but the discussions to date have been positive, and the TU do seem to understand our value as enablers of digital transformation. Work continues on the development of an interim NZ health plan, and this will be released for consultation over the coming two months. It would be great if you could all provide feedback and input to this once it is released.

It is also great to see that there is growing clinical informatics involvement with the MOH HIRA programme. Becky George (the MOH liaison person on the advisory panel) is Clinical Director for this programme, and a clinical reference group has been formed with several members from the advisory panel and from the wider clinical informatics community. Becky and programme director Joe Milich gave a HIRA programme update to the April advisory panel meeting, and have committed to providing ongoing updates and opportunities for input as the programme progresses.

The HiNZ virtual digital health conference on March 30-31 was an amazing success. Despite multiple covid-related postponements, and the need to flex from an in-person to a virtual event at short notice, the HiNZ team did an incredible job pulling together such an inspiring and informative two day event. All of the talks and discussions are online and available on the HiNZ website, and there is lots and lots of great content to watch.

We are continuing to refine the eHealth Forum and over the coming months will be looking to strengthen links between the forum and eHealth News articles. If you haven’t been there lately please hop onto the forum and join the conversation. Our strength as a community relies on our connectedness and on us all participating in our ongoing discussion and debate.

Kia kaha

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

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