Barts appoints five clinical IT leads

Barts Health NHS Trust has appointed five senior clinicians to informatics leadership roles.

Consultant haematologist Dr Charles Gutteridge has become chief clinical information officer, while four clinical information officers will help to deliver Barts’ informatics strategy over the next two years.

Dr Gutteridge told EHI the clinical information officers represented the geographic locations of Barts Health.

“My role is to connect all of the clinical staff to our emerging strategy, which is based around our concepts of a single system; the connectedness of data right across our health economy; and the use of big data for patients in particular, but for everybody at a practice level.”

He said the electronic health record was about collecting patient data at the point of care so it was crucial to have clinicians in informatics leadership roles.

“I see myself leading a group of clinicians working geographically, but making the connections for other clinicians right across that patch.

"[We want to ensure] that we collect data in the same way, that we all agree the same form of clinical objectives across departments, and practice in a way that we can get quality improvements and better public health as we use data more effectively right across the East End.”

Dr Gutteridge said leading clinicians towards the best use of EHRs was one of the most challenging, but interesting clinical management tasks he had ever undertaken.

However, this took time as getting clinicians to make major changes to their ways of working often involved talking to them on a one-to-one basis. He will commit three days a week to the CCIO role.

The new CIOs are Frank Chinegwundoh, who is a consultant urological surgeon at Newham University Hospital, and Manoj Ramachandran, a consultant in paediatrics and young adult orthopaedics and trauma at St Bartholomew’s and The Royal London Hospital.

The others are David van Heel, a professor of genetics and honorary consultant gastroenterologist, and John Peters, Whipps Cross University Hospital clinical director and a consultant urological surgeon.

Barts’ chief information officer Luke Readman said: “Creating a clinically appropriate information culture across Barts Health is fundamental to providing more efficient and safer care to our patients.

“These clinical leaders share something in common –a passion to use informatics as a tool to drive up clinical quality of care and support professional practice.”

EHI has been championing the role of CCIOs over the past two years. In March 2012, former health secretary Andrew Lansley launched the CCIO Leaders Network to promote and develop current and future clinical information leaders across the NHS.