Digital Health Advisory Panel Elections — #BecomingTheProfession Part 1

This is the first blog in a small series over the next period where I’m sharing my thoughts on the future of the Digital Health Networks as part of my election campaign for the Digital Health CIO Advisory Panel.

If you like what you read, want to find out more and support the principles. – 1) Join the Networks 2) Vote for Me.

We are becoming the profession

My ambition for the Digital Health Profession is at the core of what’s next for the Networks.

For those who have read some of my recent articles I have a core belief Digital Health is at its best when it is diverse, multi-disciplinary, iterative, adaptable and meets understood needs.

This requires great connected, skilled and trusted people. Whether across Design, Data, Technology, Change, Quality Improvement, Ethics, Privacy, Knowledge, Informatics, clinical practice development and on…at it heart this great people in an environment where they can thrive doing great things.

We therefore need to become a profession that has:

• A cohesive identity that celebrates diversity and specialisms across the broad continuum of Digital Health
• A loud, trusted voice that provides the profession a role in policy setting and wider reforms (inc. pay, terms and conditions) and is the go to place of consultation and involvement on Digital Health that the public recognise.
• A relentless focus on the pipeline of skills and talent ensuring we are a head of need in an every changing Digital Health landscape
• A simpler professional landscape that brings people together as an truly reflective Digital MDT and offers accreditation and certification of skills (not just defined by role) for anyone who works in and around Digital Health

I’m standing for the Advisory Panel with the aim of pushing 3 tangible next steps:

• Focus 1 Work to align the Digital Health Networks and FEDIP to build a cohesive identity of Digital Health Professionals across the 4 nations
• Focus 2 Support the development of an editorial board to drive the creation and curation of papers to help inform policy and wider discourse reflective of our community of Digital Health Professionals as trusted experts
• Focus 3 Drive a focus looking at involvement in the networks of underrepresented specialisms and groups positioning the networks to support an emergent pipeline of talent.

So what do I mean by Focus 1?

Let’s be honest we have a messy professional landscape forged from the response of countless iterations of political whims, programmes and almost drives. We are also still early in our thinking of Digital Health and have conjecture on what makes up the Digital Health Profession or the Informatics Profession. We have fantastic and in some cases historic professional bodies that have supported particular specialist areas of our profession. We have networks and collaborations. In England we have the development of regional skills networks and HEE initiatives. We have education and certification organisations. We have the role of TechUK, other industry pressure groups and standards bodies. I’m sure this list goes on.

These bodies are doing some great things but for anyone trying to find their way in this world….it’s complex.

So out of this we then have the embryonic FEDIP in part aimed as a coordinating force across some of this complexity and for me the potential to be aligner and simplifier. A force that recognises and leverages the expertise and experience across many structures, bodies and competencies. One that brings them together in a way that enables a cohesive identity and Profession to emerge. One of Digital Health Professionals.

Where then do the Digital Health Networks play? This community has grown over time, a ground up response to the continuing changes of the Health IT and later Digital Health landscape. It represents ‘lived experience’ and experts in many Digital Health fields and is often the go to place for sharing, learning and collaboration in a way not fielded anywhere else. The contributions of the networks most notably through supporting the Digital Health Rewired and Summer Schools is unparalleled. This community has grown and continues to grow and we need to find the right mechanism for it have a louder voice and more involvement at the right time in the right way.

It is here then we have an opportunity to amplify our voice— we have the emergence of FEDIP and the growth and expertise of the DH Networks — if we can leverage these together (along with the wider professional bodies) we can bring the voice of our profession to a place that can be heard, we can use the community to define the profession, we can bring our expertise to the fore and build a trusted recognised profession together.

Let’s become the profession together!

Next time: Focus 2