My globetrotting experience at UK e-Health Week
I recently took on a new role at Hyland. I now run all global marketing programs for our healthcare vertical, and I am extremely excited for the new challenges and opportunities!
Note the use of the word “global.” In fact, I just returned from my first international work trip. I headed across the pond for UK e-Health Week (#EHWK17), May 3 – 4 in Olympia, London.
It was my first time visiting Europe, and I loved it! As a remote employee, I enjoy travelling for work to see colleagues, and this time was no different.
Work hard
At the event, I had the opportunity to sit in on sessions and start learning the landscape in the UK (so different than the US, which is where I’ve worked since starting at Hyland three years ago).
I learned little things, like how it’s called an electronic patient record or EPR instead of an electronic medical record or EMR. And I learned big things, like how the National Health Service (NHS) is a publicly funded national healthcare system for England that is on a digital transformation journey. Going paperless is a big initiative for the NHS and many people were talking about the NHS Five Year Forward View.
Other sessions focused on using technology to support long-term care, preventing patient re-admissions, having more control over data, and at the end of the day, using technology to ensure the right patient is getting the right care at the right time.
“What’s interesting to me is the mix of providers, of patients and of industry,” said Professor Sir Malcolm Grant, chair of the NHS, England. “And we’re going to get a marriage between these three and try to understand how digitization and e-health can advance the cause of better care for patients at lower cost.”
This representation of all sides offered a 360-degree view of the current state of global healthcare, which is on the verge of going digital, and how that helps providers deliver better care while keeping patients more in the loop.
Adrien Byrne, director of informatics at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, talked about how important it is to have an open data platform approach with multiple vendors and open APIs. While the Trust doesn’t necessarily want a lot of vendors, it wants to have openness amongst the organization to share information.
One thing Byrne said that was extremely important regarding technology and providing care was,
Make the right thing to do the easy thing to do.
This was a topic that resonated throughout UK e-Health Week. And as technology continues to grow, sometimes “less is more” is the key to making the right thing easy.
“Aligning technology and care everywhere is a challenge, but a key to long-term sustainability,” said Matthew Swindells, national director of Operations and Information at NHS England, during his keynote speech.
That’s why empowering caregivers with access to the information they need without logging into multiple different systems requiring different passwords is important.
Play hard
Of course, I had some free time to explore London with my colleague Renee. I love reading historical non-fiction (King Henry the 8th and all his wives, so fascinating!), so seeing the Tower of London was a very neat experience. We also visited the Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Parliament and the London Eye.
While in London, I was in the midst of training for my first half marathon. For inspiration, I have loved reading blogs from my colleagues back at home – Megan Larsen, Liz Simon and Jennifer Mangino. Their posts motivated me to get two runs in. I woke up early (this is a BIG deal – I’m NOT a morning person) on two different mornings (one had sun!!) and ran through Hyde Park and past Kensington Palace.
I joked that I said “hey” to Duchess Kate and Prince William.
I absolutely loved seeing all the history. The buildings were so beautiful, and it seemed like every other block there was some historical monument. I even visited our London office and was happy to see they have peanut M&Ms just like back out our headquarters in Westlake, Ohio!
It was a great trip, and I definitely feel like I’m now, in UK e-Health Week’s terms, part of the power of IT that is helping to transform health and care.
As you can tell, I’m excited about my new position. And I can definitely get used to being a globetrotter!
