EHI launches Health CIO Network

EHI is launching a national network for chief information officers and other health information leaders.

The new network will act as a platform to give health CIOs greater professional recognition, to build a shared identity, and to influence national policy and business issues that affect healthcare IT.

It will also promote benchmarking and collaboration between trusts, enabling them to exchange ideas and examples of best practice.

EHI editor Jon Hoeksma said: “This is a challenging time for healthcare IT. The government has set tough new targets for trusts to implement electronic patient records and has found some money to support its vision of a ‘paperless’ NHS.

“Yet it is clear that trusts will need to make significant, additional investments in technology against a challenging financial backdrop. Health CIOs will need to understand the policy and business pressures on their organisations, and to make sure that IT really does deliver efficiency and quality benefits for them.

“We know informal networks are in place, but with the end of the National Programme for IT and the abolition of the old strategic health authorities there is little to support them.

“The new Health CIO Network will be delivered as a network of networks that will combine to provide a significant new voice for health information leaders in the UK.”

EHI has already shown that it can build an independent, professional network. Since 2012, it has hosted the CCIO Leaders Network that grew out of its campaign for every NHS organisation to appoint a chief clinical information officer to lead on IT and information projects.

The new network will build on this experience, to make sure the Health CIO Network is independent, well governed, and effective.

The network will be formed with an advisory panel, headed by an elected chair and vice-chair, which will set objectives and provide input into regional and national events, including an annual conference and a summer school.

News about the network, case studies and professional materials will be hosted in a new, dedicated area of the EHI portal, while members will be encouraged to keep in touch using social media and social networks.

To support the launch, a partnership has already been agreed with the North East Health Informatics Forum, which has representatives from 15 trusts from across the North East and Cumbria, as well as local clinical commissioning groups.

Mark Thomas, the director of health informatics at Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, said: “By having a transparent discussion and a forum for open interaction, we have been able to agree a programme of work across our health economy with the aim of removing barriers that hinder patient level data from securely flowing to where the patient is being treated.

“The launch of the national Health CIO Network will help expand the opportunity for sharing and learning what really works across the whole country. Working collaboratively with and through this new national network we will be able to continue to innovate within the care environment and provide even better patient centric services without barriers.”

Discussions with other networks are underway. Hoeksma added: “A lot of health CIOs have seen the development that EHI has done for CCIOs and want to see the same for themselves and their colleagues.

“We are delighted to be in a position to launch the Health CIO Network; and invite all health information leaders to join and to help shape its success.”

EHI Live 2013 is running a Health CIO stream for the first time, to discuss the professional issues facing chief information officers. The Health CIO Network will be launched formally at 3.45pm this afternoon, Wednesday, 6 November, in Theatre C. Come along and find out more.

EHI Live 2013 is more than a meeting, more than an exhibition. For anyone involved in the use of information in healthcare it’s a golden opportunity to update knowledge, get answers to questions, meet the experts and think about the future. This year’s conference is free for all visitors to attend.