Andy Kinnear: never too old for school

I like watching University Challenge. No, that’s not true, I like playing University Challenge. The working class oik in me likes answering questions faster than Tarquin Double-Barrel from Kings College, Cambridge.

I sit in front of the telly and keep score against the two teams playing. I scream at my kids to “not talk over the questions” if they even dare to whisper while Paxman is in full flow. It’s slightly worrying.  

Sharing knowledge is brilliant  

In addition to the latent class prejudice, it’s a habit born of competitive spirit and an ego-driven need to show off a bit This last trait, the displaying of things I have learned, serves some kind of primal ego need to ‘be clever’.

But there can also an altruistic pleasure from sharing knowledge. It is a nice feeling when someone says “oh I didn’t know that, that’s helpful” or similar.

Of course, before you can share this knowledge you have to obtain it; through experience, education and observation. I really do enjoy learning new things, understanding how others did something and – especially – analysing the human aspects of things.

I like getting into the real whys, whats and hows. So, my favourite two days of the whole year are when I go back to school. More precisely, when I go to the Health CIO Summer School each June.

This year, we went to Leeds University and for the first time we combined ‘schools’ with our colleagues in the CCIO Network. It was brilliant; I mean a certain depth of ‘brilliant’ too.

I don’t just mean “we had a great time in Leeds meeting colleagues, listening to presentations and having a pint or two” brilliant – although that all happened.

I mean “learning new things, challenging our conventional thinking, reflecting on who we are and why we are here, listening to our inspiring leadership and even more inspiring international colleagues and renewing our enthusiasm for digital health and care” brilliant. It was a privilege to be there.

Health CIOs work at many levels

One of my favourite chief information officers is Luke Readman, from East London (he works for NHS Waltham Forest, Newham and Tower Hamlets Clinical Commissioning Groups).

Luke oozes gravitas with his quietly spoken wisdom and as chair of the Code4Health Board he is quietly orchestrating a revolution in the way we achieve interoperability.

Luke talks about the role of a health CIO involving constant engagement at four levels. Firstly, at ‘organisation’ level, where we are employed and where the impact of delivery is most evident to us.

Then at ‘footprint’ level, operating effectively with our partner organisations to ensure the digital strategy works for the population we most immediately serve.

Then at ‘regional’ level where we seek to lever efficiency across our wider region. And finally at ‘national’ level where we can influence strategy and ensure programmes are designed to usefully serve our region, our footprint and our organisation. So the role of a health CIO stretches far beyond the organisation boundary.

Learning from the best

These four levels were richly in evidence at the summer school. Over two days, we listened to sessions from our new national director Matthew Swindells (appointed national director for commissioning operations and information at NHS England in December), and to John Newton (chief knowledge officer for Public Health England).

They outlined the vital role our work will play in delivering a safe, secure and affordable NHS in future. Then, we heard from Robert Wah, from the American Medical Association, describing the experience in the USA.

We heard from Phil Graham, CIO in Blackpool (Fylde and Wyre Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust), about the national children’s strategy and we heard from Andy Hadley (head of IT development at NHS Dorset CCG) about the Dorset ‘Connectathon’. 

As CIOs we grew: we grew our knowledge, we grew our network, we grew our thinking and we also grew our ambitions.

Taking the pledge

We also heard from Bob Wachter, the US ‘Digital Doctor’ who described his much heralded ‘Making IT work’ review and hinted at the recommendations we can expect in September.

One of his findings is likely to be a call to arms for a professionalisation of our roles as CIOs and CCIOs. That is great news and long overdue.

The report is likely to yield fertile ground for us to create the profession we all deserve, and for successive generations to enjoy. As CIOs we have a key role to play in making this ambition a reality.

So, to kick off that commitment we launched the CIO Pledge at the summer school, our commitment to professionalism:

I am a health CIO and I pledge to:

Attain professional recognition through experience, education and examination
Retain professional recognition through formal continuing professional development
Ensure my team are part of a formal career framework and have my personal guarantee to support their own journey
Proudly uphold the values of the health CIO profession by ceaselessly promoting the role digital health
Implement digital health in line with the needs of our citizens, our organisations and our workforce.

Fifty six CIOs signed the pledge at summer school or in the days that followed – and that number continues to grow.

Promoting professionalism

The second bullet refers to our ‘continuing professional development’ and summer school is an example. It is our commitment to ourselves, as the lead digital professional in our organisation, to be better at what we do.

We need to do that to make things better for our staff, to make the best of our relationships with CCIOs, with chief executives and the like, and ultimately to serve the public in the best way possible. This thirst for knowledge needs to be part of our professional behaviour. It needs to be what we all do.

I am too old to go on University Challenge and too combative, too. I’d end up shouting at Paxman or taking a swing at Tarquin.

But I am not too old to learn new things and put them into practice. I’m not too old to share the knowledge I have accumulated and help others learn from my experience. I am not too old to believe we really can create a digital health and care system by sharing our learnings and applying the very best wherever we can. 

So, I’m never going to hear the voice over man say “Lancaster, Kinnear” before I smugly answer ‘Mickey Guy’ to a starter for ten on Crewe Alexandra strikers of the 1970s (he dreams). But I am going to see us create a health CIO profession built on a constant thirst for knowledge and improvement.