Karen Day: Clinical Informatics Leadership Award 2022 finalist

eHealthNews.nz: Clinical Informatics

Karen Day: Clinical Informatics Leadership Award 2022 finalist

Sunday, 6 November 2022

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PROFILE - Karen Day, senior lecturer, head of department (Health Systems), Auckland University

Judge’s quote
“Through her work to develop our workforce, teaching, mentoring, research and innovations, Karen Day is ensuring the future of the profession can work in an ever changing and dynamic environment.

“With national advocacy, she is enabling visibility and promoting the health informatics workforce."

Nominator’s quote
“Karen's clinical background, coupled with her extensive academic and research background makes her an asset to the digital health sector. She continuously makes broad contributions to digital health in NZ. This leadership portfolio includes tenure on HiNZ Board, and the ACHI Council.”

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Profile
Day, in collaboration with other academics, established the first wholly online post graduate diploma in health informatics at the University of Auckland, supporting students nationally and internationally to upskill and develop their theoretical understanding, research capability and knowledge to further the profession of health informatics. She led the establishment of the first undergraduate health informatics pathway, globally.

She teaches, mentors and supports masters and PhD students in informatics, actively contributing to the growing literature reflecting emerging trends in both health and information technology

Her commitment to workforce development is evidenced through the first national census of the digital health workforce in 2018 and the publication of a co-edited book, The Health Information Workforce, Current and Future Developments. She is passionate about making this workforce visible and acknowledging their contribution to the health system.

Day joined the Clinical Informatics Leadership Network in 2019, in the inaugural advisory committee. She was the lead author for the first Clinical Informatics Position Statement, which became the foundation of CiLN, and presented this at the NI2021 (Nursing Informatics) conference.

Her second research stream is telehealth, publishing several studies on this topic. She serves on the NZ Telehealth Leadership Forum and contributed to the national telehealth survey revision in 2022.

Impact
Day is one of the few people in New Zealand to become a Fellow of the Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI), and is one of the founding Fellows of the Australasian Institute of Digital Health: recognition of her outstanding contribution to informatics.

In 2020 she was recognised for her global contributions to digital health with a Fellowship of the International Academy of Health Science Informatics.

Day also enabled establishment of HiNZ Fellowship programme, is a Fellow of HiNZ and co-chaired the FHiNZ selection committee of 2022. Membership of the HiNZ Board (2017 – 2021) was based on her academic prowess and extensive governance experience, and she chaired the scientific stream for the annual conference.

In 2010 she co-led a telehealth project on the West Coast that resulted in implementation of a telehealth strategy for the Canterbury and West Coast region, which is now thriving, and led to student Masters research initiatives over the years that followed.

In 2015, Day led a telehealth research project with Selwyn Foundation to establish the value of nursing via telehealth. This resulted in a new company to provide telehealth to older adults.

Expertise
Day shows exemplary academic expertise in clinical informatics, via her many publications, academic profile, awards and fellowships bestowed on her, and dedication to conferences and academic journals.

She is extremely generous with her expertise, with an exceptionally high level of knowledge gained in her academic career - especially in the areas of telehealth and workforce - she mentors and supports Masters and PhD students in informatics, and continuously contributes to publications to reflect industry needs and emerging trends in both health and IT. Communication Day's multiple publications and workforce work have promoted and uplifted the value of clinical informatics nationally and internationally. She continuously makes broad contributions to digital health in NZ.

She is the associate editor for BMJ Health and Care Informatics (since 2015), co-establishing the Implementer Report to enable non-academics to report on their work, and for JMIR Nursing (2022), enabling publication of important and impactful research reports.

She has published extensively on digital health, led the development of a digital literacy survey for the Ministry of Health in 2019 and is currently advising them on a follow-up survey .

Day is enabling visibility of the health informatics workforce. This is a significant contribution to digital health.