National clinical and consumer health design council for data and digital

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Te Whatu Ora is forming a national clinical and consumer health design council for data and digital.

Stuart Bloomfield, interim chief data and digital, Te Whatu Ora, made the announcement in his keynote address to the HiNZ Digital Health Leadership Summit in Wellington on September 5.

He said the new group will advise on and prioritise the many clinical data and digital projects being worked on nationwide, ensuring they “fit into an overall, cohesive and smarter system”.

“There are 470 clinician system related projects currently in the pipeline, so they won’t be short of work,” he told the 200-strong audience.

There are also more than 95 planned data and analytical projects across the country and the new structure of the health system provides the opportunity to look at these through a regional and national lens.

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Bloomfield said it is key to listen to clinical staff and consumers and use what their feedback to keep improving digital tools.

“Clinical leadership does not mean sprinkling clinical involvement over the top of a done deal – it means finding the clinicians with the passion to drive change in complex systems – whatever that takes,” he said.

Chair of the Clinical Informatics Leadership Network Alex Kemp said clinicians are experts in understanding safe, effective and quality patient care.

"Their involvement in prioritising workstreams is essential and ensures the clinical workforce is concentrating on systems that provide the best and most effective patient outcomes," she says.

"We welcome this as a strong step in the right direction, where clinical partnership is embedded in the design and development of a digitally and data enabled health care system."

Bloomfield said the two new organisations - Te Whatu Ora and Te Aka Whai Ora - have merged 29 entities and now have the largest data and digital team in the country. He recognised that it is a time of change and this is unsettling for many staff.

“But we call on our data and digital workforce and partners to be the change,” he said.

Te Whatu Ora manager data governance Simon Ross said that while the structures in the health system have changed, the appetite for data use is “stronger than ever”.

He said the focus going forward is on “governed access to national data for local use”, aligned with the Data and Information Strategy for Health and Disability.

“Design work on the data and digital operating model within Te Whatu Ora will assist with the shifts we need to make to deliver this strategy,” Ross said.

Picture: Stuart Bloomfield, interim chief data and digital, Te Whatu Ora


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