Introducing the Developing Professionals Group The Developing Professionals Group (DPG) was established in late 2010, starting with a group of 5 then Informatics Trainees. We have since expanded the group and now have 11 members. The Developing Professionals Officer role was developed in order to provide direction and a voice at the regional committees and national council for young professionals in the Health Informatics arena. In addition to this the Officer is required to place an emphasis on encouraging young, developing professionals to attend or at least have wider access to events and information e.g. through the use of multimedia etc The role was created in order to further efforts around succession planning within the Informatics Profession as an enabler of the Informatics agenda in the long term. As well as monthly conference calls, The Developing Professionals Officer sits alongside other committee members both at branch and national level. We are always looking for enthusiastic, proactive individuals to support the developing professionals group and the wider ASSIST committees. If you have an interest in professional development and want an opportunity to influence and shape the informatics agenda moving forward then there is a role for you. If you are interested in getting involved, or want to find out some more information please contact the Chair of the Developing Professionals Group, Jenny at Jenny.jackson2@nhs.net Further information can also be found via the ASSIST Facebook and LinkedIn groups/pages, search for; ASSIST BCS Health at www.facebook.com (Join the group and/or like our page) ASSIST health informatics at www.linkedin.com You can also follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/bcs_assist.
An introduction to some of the current Developing Professionals Group Members can be seen below: Name: Jenny Jackson Contact details: jenny.jackson2@nhs.net Personal Profile: I ve worked in the NHS as an Informatics professional for over 5 years, having started out as a student placement; a 12 month placement in industry as part of a BA Honours degree in Business Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University. I then went on to achieve a place on the NHS Graduate Management Training Scheme (Informatics). The scheme offered challenging work placements, specialism competencies, multi disciplinary action learning sets and experiential learning providing the opportunity to develop leadership skills and inter organisational relationships. Most importantly, it provided exposure and an in depth understanding of various different NHS organisations and their current challenges and priorities. Now in my first substantive post following completion of the Graduate Scheme, working as a Project Manager on the Long Term Conditions/Telehealth Programme, at NHS Yorkshire and the Humber. Currently focusing on the delivery of telehealth across the region, previous roles have seen me leading the technical development and procurement for a regional stroke telemedicine solution. As a founding member of DPG I am very keen to continue the development of the group and improve the awareness of Informatics as a profession and ASSIST generally. I am eager to ensure that ASSIST as a professional group remains relevant in an increasingly changing landscape and delivers in line with what our members want and expect. Name: Amy Coggan Contact details: Amy.Coggan@gradscheme.institute.nhs.uk Personal Profile: For my first placement I was based at NHS Doncaster as an Information Manager. My main piece of work was to design, build and implement a solution for the PCT to meet pseudonymisation requirements. Pseudonymisation means trusts need to use anonymous data for secondary uses, such as analysis, and pseudonyms can be used instead of the NHS Number or other identifying data items. The project involved researching the trust s data flows, designing processes, amending policies and not least, building a method in the data warehouse to give patients a pseudonym that can be used to analyse data at patient level. I am currently working at The Retreat in York which is an Independent mental health provider. Here I am creating and implementing various spreadsheets and databases to help the organisation with processes such as Doctor s Revalidation, Community of Communities Accreditation and Advanced Statement Tracking. I am also putting together a business case for an electronic incident reporting system. I have developed my technical skills a great deal in these placements, as well as furthering
my experience of small project management. I am looking forward to my final placement at Harrogate and District FT where I will be managing a small Information Team and assisting on larger projects. I have always been enthusiastic about personal and professional development so was keen to join the ASSIST Developing Professionals Group (DPG) and the Yorkshire and Northern Committee when I was approached by a DPG Representative. ASSIST are very keen to diversify and refresh the committees and I am starting to help them organise events. I hope to continue to input into the DPG and the Committee and ensure members can make the most of ASSIST and what it offers. Name: Fern Gibson Branch: East Midlands Contact details: Fern.Gibson@nhs.net Personal Profile: My first Health Informatics placement was as Pseudonymisation Project Manager for NHS Nottinghamshire County, NHS Nottingham City and NHS Bassetlaw. This involved the procurement, testing and implementation of a technical solution in order to protect Patient Identifiable Data. This placement enabled me to gain a broad perspective of the ways in which information is used within different primary care organisations, I was also able to understand the importance of partnership working and sharing best practice. I have also completed a 2 month flexi placement, on which I gained a better understanding of the Private Health Sector, working at the Circle Treatment Centre in Nottingham. My role was to research outpatient processes across all gateways and put in place a pilot assessing the levels of activity. Within this placement I was able to improve my technical analysis and communications skills, working with Consultants, Senior Management, Nurses and Administration staff. I have recently started my final placement at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, where I am working in a Project Management role implementing an Order Communications system for pathology and radiology services. I was very pleased to be invited to join the BCS ASSIST Developing Professionals Group, as I think it is vitally important to engage young professionals starting out in Health Informatics. I am looking forward to helping organise events and continuing to input into the DPG. Name: Jess Holdstock Branch: South East Coast Contact details: jessica.holdstock@gradscheme.institute.nhs.uk Personal Profile: I graduated in 2007 and joined the NHS training scheme from a marketing and PR background. I spent the first year in Kent, initially with West Kent PCT before the department moved over to the
provider arm to become part of West Kent Community Health. In April, WKCH merged with East Kent Community Health to form Kent Community Health, so I ve already experienced significant structural change. I remained with the ICT department throughout my placement, working as a Project & Change Manager for health and social care integration. This involved preparing clinical and social care colleagues for the transition to the Common Assessment Framework as well as piloting and initiating full project rollout of an integrated information flow across primary, community and social care. This was a fantastic project to be part of and gave me insight into the technical, organisational and cultural implications of the integration agenda. I developed particular skills in managing relationships with clinicians, CCGs and social care teams, obtained the PRINCE2 Practitioner qualification and also obtained a good understanding of the capacity of local network and IT infrastructure. I also sharpened my project management skills and now have experience of using Microsoft Project. I am currently spending 2 months with The King s Fund Leadership department, working as a project manager across various leadership programmes offered by The Fund. The purpose of this placement is for me to take a step back from Informatics as a specialism and get a deeper understanding of the need for leadership in the NHS, the leadership framework and how to identify and develop leadership skills gaps. This is with the intention of understanding how I can become a better leader in the future as well as how to help co workers to fulfil their leadership potential. At the beginning of November I will be beginning my final placement, with Kent and Medway Partnership Trust, which is a mental health trust. I will be working with the Performance and Business Intelligence teams across a range of data projects, specifically focusing on the development of the Patient Level Information Cost System (PLICS), which will prepare the Trust for the transition to PbR. I will also obtain my first exposure to an NPfIT information system, working with Rio to manage and extract data for the PLICs system. Since beginning the training scheme, I ve been aware of the need to develop the role of Informatics professionals and the specialism itself and I m excited about the possibilities I think DPG will present in this area. I m also hoping to play a leading role in raising the profile of ASSIST and DPG in the South in order to disseminate the good work going on further North. Name: Simeon Smith Contact details: simeon.smith@gradscheme.institute.nhs.uk Personal Profile: I joined the graduate scheme after many years working in the restaurant trade. My first placement was as an Information Analyst at Leeds Partnerships NHS FT, working with IBM Cognos to produce reports and communicate insight across the Trust from data collected in the electronic medical record, Paris. The placement allowed me to develop an understanding of the hurdles of pursuing electronic record, from clinical engagement through to data quality. What was clear from the outset was that Informatics was a very social discipline, with an IT expertise encompassing a small part of the required skill set to be an effective manager. I m currently on secondment to the developer of SystmOne, TPP, to further develop my understanding of EMRs. The focus over the 8 weeks is more at the primary clinical usage of the
system in comparison to the first placement. I ve been tasked with producing an analysis of the Acute sector market for EMR solutions. The final placement will be at the NHS Information Centre, working on Patient Reported Outcome Measures development. I hope that this experience will compliment the rest of the scheme; having experience of the breadth of Informatics from the point of clinical entry of data through to national measures. I see ASISST as vital to providing Health Informatics professionals a forum in which to share best practice and innovate to overcome the challenges of meeting the information requirements of the new health economy so am pleased to be a member of the DPG. Name: Ben Kenyon Contact Details: Ben.kenyon@nhs.net Personal Profile: After graduating from university in 2007 with a BSC in Marketing, I entered the NHS in a HR capacity, working firstly as a recruitment officer, followed by overseeing a project on redesigning Doctors rotas, introducing the necessary changes needed to accommodate the European Working Time Directive into the organisation. My introduction the world of Informatics within Healthcare came via the NHS Informatics Graduate Management Training Scheme. The scheme introduced me to the importance and value of the Information/IT function in healthcare and also introduced me to ASSIST. For my first year placement on the scheme I was based in a large acute hospital (Lancashire Teaching Hospitals FT), working on projects which involved making key information more accessible, reliable and timely to users within the organisation. My eyes were opened to the real practical uses of how information is used operationally on a day to day basis to make a difference to staff working on the front line and the patients that they treat. It was also around this time that I became involved with ASSIST and was made aware of the importance of being part of a wider Informatics community and towards working to improving the awareness of Informatics as a profession. My second year involved a flex placement at the NHS confederation, tasked with build a strategy for the organisation in terms how they approach supporting Informatics nationally, and a placement at NHS Manchester working as Information analyst. Now I continue in a substantive post at NHS Manchester as a Senior Information Analyst, supporting one of the organisations newly formed CCG s, determining their information needs and providing and analysing information to influence decision making.