Rising star: Natalie Liao

Arriving in the UK in her early twenties, Natalie Liao wanted to make a difference in the world, and healthcare IT turned out to be the perfect fit for her.

Hailing from China, “near the home of the pandas” as she puts it, getting to grips with the NHS has not always been easy, but Liao says she enjoys the challenge.

“Every day I am interested in my job and there are always new things to learn. The people working in the NHS are very supportive and easy to get on with, so I do enjoy it,” she says.

From Beijing to London, via the world

Liao has always been independent and hungry for learning. “I think I was the first child in my school to have a computer,” she says.

She went on to develop an interest in maths and physics and studied international economics at the University of International Business and Economics in Beijing.

After her studies, Liao wanted to see the world, and decided to go to Europe. She spent a year studying technology management in France and then took an MSc in electronic business management at Warwick University.

Then, she was ready to start her career. However, by this time it was 2008 and the meltdown of the financial industry that triggered the ongoing ‘credit crunch’ was underway.

This meant that when Liao was offered a job with a French investment bank, she decided to turn it down, putting her on a path towards healthcare.

Driving BI at a CSU

Liao started her present job, as a business intelligence project manager for NHS North West London Commissioning Support Unit, three months ago, and has quickly taken on significant responsibilities.

“The sad story is that the business intelligence project manager, who I was taking over from, was hit by a van, so he was on sick leave from the third day I joined.

“Because of this, the handover process was a bit disrupted so I was a bit nervous,” she says, adding that she buckled down and did a lot of “self-studying” to familiarise herself with the role.

Her first project was to manage the development of the CSU’s regional data processing centre, which took her straight into the minefield of consent, confidentiality, and publication issues that surrounds patient data.

“There’s a lot about how to design the infrastructure to deliver the security requirements needed, which is a challenge,” she says.

Liao has also just started a multimillion pound BI procurement, and is very excited about the task ahead. “We have a small but efficient project team,” she says.

“We want to procure a business intelligence system from the private sector in partnership with a consulting firm. My role will be to lead the different work streams.”

However efficient the team, the project is likely to involve a lot of extra hours. But Liao just shrugs her shoulders, saying: “I would rather a job keep me very busy instead of nothing to do.”

Significant achievements

Although she has yet to reach 30, Liao already has a significant list of healthcare IT achievements behind her.

For a while she worked for NHS Connecting for Health, where she helped to develop the UK e-health open source ecosystem framework (ehealthopensource.org). This included writing a research paper on open source; for which she went to York Business School.

The open source community project was a big success, and has received praise from Geraint Lewis, the chief data officer at NHS England, among others.

However, after two years with CfH, her contract was up. Liao says that although she had a great boss, who really wanted to keep her, she felt she had to move on.

Her next job was at NHS Worcestershire CCG, where she project managed the Worcestershire telehealth project.

Liao has mixed views on telehealth, which has struggled to take off in England, but says its many , well documented problems in many parts of the country are not about technology.

“It is about the business model and the user experience,” she says, adding that some kind of breakthrough has to be made to work because “we have an aging population and not enough carers.”

Other projects that Liao has been involved with include a programme by the National Institute for Health Research to roll out an appraisal tool across England.

When asked how she has managed to do so much, she reels off a long list of the names of mentors and bosses who have helped her along the way. “I have had so many great mentors along the way motivating me and giving me great opportunities,” she says.

Making a difference

Liao is clearly enthusiastic about working for the NHS, and says it is humbling trying to make a difference to people’s lives through improving their healthcare.

“My favourite thing about my job is job satisfaction. It’s a very big organisation and the tax payer invests billions in it each year. It gives you the platform if you really want to achieve something.”

She admits she does not yet know where else her career may take her, but says: “I can see myself [continuing to work] in health care where technology can make a huge difference. I want to drive change.”

Are you a “rising star” of NHS IT? Or do you know somebody who is? EHI is looking to talk to people who are at a relatively early stage in their careers who are set to shape the healthcare IT and information world of the future.

If you know somebody who should be profiled, who is happy to talk about their working lives, their favourite projects and ambitions, please contact EHI reporter Lis Evenstad.