Informatics Management

Lead the Way. Lead informatics management.

"The knowledge, skills and tools which enable information to be collected, managed, used and shared to support the delivery of healthcare and to promote health"

Informatics is the catch-all phrase that usefully describes a broad section of work that at its core relates to four areas:

the coding, collection and storage of data (often called clinical coding)
the development of technology and systems to process, distribute and present the data (often called information and communication technology (ICT) or IT)
the management of the data to transform it into meaningful information (often called information management or analysis)
the contextualising or mobilising of the information in organisations to make it useful knowledge and intelligence to support decision-making (often called knowledge management or knowledge services).

Whatever the area or project, informatics is one of the fastest growing areas in the health sector, leading the way with exciting projects and creative use of IT to improve patient care.

Supporting the NHS

The informatics role in the NHS is one of support - it can be thought of as the arteries and veins of the NHS. It needs a strong architecture and infrastructure. It carries the vital elements to keep the NHS 'alive' - but crucially it supports the body of the NHS in supporting the transformation of services and the continual striving of service improvement to the benefit of patients and the public. This is made clear when considering just two of the key NHS national agendas.

World-class commissioning. This is the aspiration of commissioning organisations to manage local health systems (provider hospitals, community services, relationships with local authorities and third sector) so that best-value and highest quality care outcomes can be attained. This is predicated on the ability to draw upon an evidence base, knowledge and intelligence, built on a robust technology infrastructure that enables the commissioners to make informed decisions on behalf of the population to which they are accountable.
The NHS "Next Stage Review Final Report High Quality Care for All" is an ambitious patient-centred framework for the NHS that raises the profile of the quality of care and health-outcome based interventions. One of the challenges for the informatics community is in the measurement of health outcomes, the communication of these to patients and the development of technology to support patients in the right settings - which increasingly will be home or community based.

The challenges for informatics professionals to deliver on this vision are critical to the future running of the NHS. Informatics professionals will be represented at all levels of NHS organisations up to Board level.

Skills required

The skills that are relevant for the future informatics managers will not be based solely on technical proficiency; they will be much more closely aligned with the generic skills of managers in other areas. Most important will be the skills required to deal with the complexity of the NHS agenda and the inter- and intra-organisational relationships. Crucially skills related to transformational change management will be needed - individuals with highly developed communication and problem structuring skills, who are analytical, flexible, creative and innovative. Some of the specific competencies include:

Understand the methods and techniques to create and deliver effective informatics strategies, investment plans, policies and standards which support NHS organisation business objectives.
Identify data and information requirements and develop models for processing and analysing these.
To apply knowledge to meet the information needs of the organisation and stakeholders.
Participation in creating an integrated performance framework enabling the consolidated review of a range of organisation performance targets and aims.
To develop and promote information strategy and policies that cover the design of information structures, the setting of policies for the sourcing and maintenance of data content.
Work across corporate functions to deliver information that supports organisational key targets, standards and objectives, and within this activity gain an understanding and appreciation of the roles of a multi-disciplinary team.

Visit www.hicf.org.uk where you will find a careers framework for health informatics and will be able to see descriptions for a variety of roles.

Another useful reference site for health informatics is the NHS Connecting for Health's eSpace website.