CCIOs ‘ideally placed’ to navigate IG

Chief clinical information officers are ideally placed to navigate tensions between patient safety and information governance when it comes to data sharing, the chair of the Royal College of General Practitioners has suggested.

Dr Maureen Baker was delivering the keynote address at the opening of the third annual CCIO Leaders Network conference, held alongside EHI Live at Birmingham’s NEC.

Dr Baker, who is also clinical director for patient safety at the Health and Social Care Information Centre, told delegates she believed data sharing was crucial to delivering safe and effective care.

“But there is a tension between perfect patient safety and perfect information governance,” she admitted. “You could say that for perfect patient safety, every clinician that deals with the patient should have access to all the relevant information they need to safely treat that patient.

“But for perfect information governance, all the information would be tightly held between a clinician and a patient and not shared at all.

“So there is tension there, and for practical and governance and effectiveness reasons, we need to manage that tension between perfect patient safety and perfect information governance.”

She went on to argue that “the CCIO community is absolutely on the frontline” in managing this challenge.

She continued: “You will be often be Caldicott guardians for your organisation and often the clinical safety officer, or possibly the medical director, and therefore hold the remit for patient safety. So as a CCIO community, I think there is a tension that you meet and work with and work through every day.”

This year’s CCIO Leaders Network conference is focusing on the challenges and opportunities of data sharing, and brings together those working in clinical informatics roles to share learning and best practice.