Convergence and integrated care strategies

Amy Freeman is the Chief Digital Information Officer at University Hospitals of North Midlands. Amy has worked in the field of information technology (IT) support and digital since 1998, she joined the NHS in 2002. She has held senior IT and digital leadership roles at NHS Connecting for Health (now NHS Digital), NHS Commissioning Board (now NHS England), Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent Partnership NHS Trust (now Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust) and Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.

Amy moved to work for NHS provider organisations to be closer to frontline care (Community and Acute) to help make a difference to the safety and quality of care provided to patients. This has included the delivery of a range of clinical systems most notably electronic patient record systems, patient portals and a virtual clinic solutions. Amy’s ambition is for “geeks to save lives”. Using technology to support the clinical decisions clinicians make with their patients about their care and treatment. Reducing the risk of error.

More recently Amy has been interested in how digital can help (or in some cases hinder) the equality and diversity agenda. Using data to drive a better understanding of our citizens. Amy is the co-chair of the Midlands Skills Development Network, which has a remit is to provide the infrastructure for improving leadership and professional development skills, raising standards, and sharing best practice through economy-wide learning.

Having worked in the health care sector for over 30 years, has gained a wealth of experience in digital transformation, with significant experience in acute sector transformation, as well as more recent experience across a whole ICB region including primary and social care. Implementing digital solutions to transform regional working. Dawn has recently commenced a role in a Community NHS Trust provider and is looking forward to utilised her skills in this area.

Skilled in Stakeholder management, Benefits Realisation, Programme Delivery, Procurement, Supplier Negotiations and Healthcare Management. Exceptional leadership skills, including mentoring future leaders to thrive. Educated with a Masters in Health informatics from the University of Leeds, along with MSP and PRINCE2 Practitioner. BCS Professional member. Featured in Computing Magazine’s IT Leaders Top 100 and Top 50 Tech Women Celebration lists in 2023.

Dr Majid Akram is Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO) for primary care in Lincolnshire ICB. He is a fellow of the NHS Digital Academy Leadership program (cohort 3). Working strategically with stakeholders on areas such as integration and digital technology implementation across Lincolnshire primary ICB. Involved in development of a virtual Multi-disciplinary team platform called vMDT.

The vMDT platform provides a workstation to schedule MDT cases and helps the team to communicate patient information securely, and allows them to undertake workflow related tasks between themselves. vMDT has been developed and used within community Heart Failure MDTs in Lincolnshire where the ICB was winner of the General practice awards 2023, in the category of best long term conditions project.

Areas of digital interest include: user centred design, pre and post evaluations to assess ROI, and workflow improvements for digital system users (amongst many other things). Always keen to share experiences with likeminded colleagues who have been immersed in deployment of digital technologies at scale. Also keen to discuss cycling with likeminded peddlers 🙂 You can connect on Linkedin.

Neil has more than 25 years’ of experience leading NHS Trust Informatics and IT Divisions. At NBT, Neil and his team have driven the digital transformation of patient care since 2017. Their vision – to deliver ‘a digital trust, providing a single view of information for clinicians with collaboration at the core’ and ‘exceptional care, quality and safety for patients’ – has involved the successful overhaul of NBT’s IT network, software, hardware and care systems. This ongoing strategy is built on the principle of change enabled by IT and led by clinicians.

Since beginning his joint role in June 2023 (the first joint Board-level appointment for NBT and UHBW), Neil has been guiding Bristol’s two acute Trusts towards a single digital care vision and strategy. This will hugely improve future ways of clinical working across both Trusts, and ultimately the local care system, with improved patient outcomes at its core.