60 second interview: Jonathan Kay
- 2 August 2007
Jonathan Kay is a Consultant Chemical Pathologist at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals and Professor of Health Informatics at the Centre for Health Informatics, City University, London. He has been Chairman of the Information Group of the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges and was a senior consultant to the Design Authority of the NHS National Programme for IT for England.
For many years he has been trying to derive clinical benefits by persuading computers to communicate. This has included work on automated transmission of laboratory reports to general practitioners, hypertext advisory systems and handheld wireless computers.
With his colleagues John McVittie, David Nurse and Christos Bountis he has won six national and international awards, including the 1998 Deloitte Consulting Award for “Information Management Project of the Year” and a 2003 European Union “Best Practice in eHealth” Award for the development of the Oxford Clinical Intranet.
He is currently working with Professor Mike Murphy on positive patient identification in blood transfusion. This work is an "NHS Live" demonstrator, was selected as the case study in the UK National Patient Safety Agency report: "Right Patient, Right Care" and recognised as "Best project: Government to Citizen" and "Overall winner" in the 2007 Government Computing Awards for Innovation and won the "Most Effective Use of Communications Technologies’ category in the "Effective IT 2007" Awards.
He is a Board Member with responsibility for patient liaison of "Lab Tests Online UK", a patient-facing website about laboratory investigations.
http://www.labtestsonline.org.uk/
He enjoys human powered vehicles, driving the Caterham 7 which he built, and acting with Garsington Opera and the Garsington Players.
What’s the first thing you do when you get into the office?
Quick scan of the new email in my internal hospital account.
Your favourite gadget at the moment?
My new Canon 400D camera.
What’s the best thing about your job?
My colleagues and students.
Favourite book or song?
Whichever collection of Steven Jay Gould essays I’m rereading.
The Alabama Song, and at the moment it would be the Marianne Faithfull version.
What’s your pet hate?
The phrase ‘IT’. It often leads to stupid thinking and stupid decisions by compartmentalising things that should be joined up.
Favourite website?
The head says the BBC news site, and the heart says The Onion
What annoys you?
The extraordinary idea that compulsory training courses can compensate for badly designed software that doesn’t fit the users’ needs. I’m still to meet anyone who has been on an Amazon training course!
In a perfect world, what would you be doing?
Walking somewhere high and windy with my family.
What’s caught your eye recently?
The iPhone.
e-Health innovation that interests you at the moment?
Everyday technologies: email, web-based information, mobile ‘phones and barcodes. Why has their uptake in healthcare been so much slower than in social communication, ecommerce and entertainment?
