Allied Health staff are change agents – new Health NZ chief

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Allied health professionals are pivotal agents of change in the health system and must leverage data to tell stories about their impact and advocate for their role, says the new chief allied health, scientific, and technical at Health New Zealand – Te Whatu Ora.

Jacqui Lunday was the chief health professions officer for the Scottish Government before moving to work in Waitaha Canterbury in 2018 and believes allied health professionals are at the forefront of transforming healthcare.

“My interest in data and digital comes from a passion around driving change at the point of care: looking at the opportunities for data driven improvement to show that the changes we make are actually delivering real and measurable impact for our systems and better outcomes for the consumers, whānau and communities we serve,” she tells eHealthNews

Lunday says the work of allied health scientific and technical staff goes beyond treatment, as it is about early intervention, prevention, and supporting long-term well-being, and the effective use of data is key to demonstrate their value.

"It is not enough to say that we are improving clinical outcomes," she explains. 

"We need to show how our interventions lead to faster access to care, shorter hospital stays, reduced readmissions, and ultimately, better quality of life for our patients.”

She believes that when allied health professionals can quantify the value they bring, they can advocate more effectively for their role in transforming the healthcare system.

"We have a lot we can do to change people's perceptions of what it is to age well," she says. 

"Whether it is using tools like the LifeCurve to predict and prevent frailty or tracking the outcomes of rehabilitation programs, data allows us to tell the story of how allied health is making a difference.”

However, Lunday acknowledges that there are challenges in achieving this vision. One is the varying levels of digital literacy across the healthcare workforce. 

"We have new graduates who are digital natives, but we also have many professionals who are not as comfortable with technology," she says. 

Lunday says it is crucial to prioritise digital skills training and make it an expectation in practice going forward.

She adds that the greatest resource in allied health is the people, and they have the biggest potential to impact patient outcomes.

“It is about ongoing conversations about data to inform decision making: using data to understand what is happening within the system, and how we are using our resource in service of that flow. Those are the conversations that need to happen if we are going to be impactful.”

Lunday concludes that there is a need to be creative and innovative in approaching the challenges facing the healthcare system, but says above all, “we need to be data-driven.” 

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