12 60 seconds with… Dr Rob Smillie Radiologist and chief medical information officer (CMIO) Tell me a bit about your roles: I’m one of the RFL CMIOs, and I work within the clinical digitisation team. My role essentially translates the worlds of digital and clinical, bringing them together in the best way that works for patients and staff. I’m also a radiology registrar, and I balance the two. We look at what digital tools we should use, how to optimise the ones we currently have and how patients interact with them. I’m also the chair of our digital technology advisory group which assesses whether third party digital tools are suitable and feasible in situations where we have a problem that can’t be fixed by changing the people or the processes, or by utilising existing tools. We look at how we make new tools work within current demands, timeframes and costs. How did you get into the clinical digitisation side of things? Before this role I had a background in research, some of which was more technical, and then I took a secondment at NHS England where I worked for the national medical director as one of the fellows within the national transformation team on the roll out of large-scale programmes. Job adverts for the RFL CMIOs came up and I thought I could bring a different perspective. What advice do you have for people who would like to get into this kind of role? I’m often asked, ‘do I need to learn how to code? Do I need to learn how to do something really technical?’. I think the most important thing is being able to get things done and to be able to work with people well, understanding the processes that you work within, the constraints of the system, and aspects of finance, governance, clinical and digital. With the portfolio of work I have, it’s useful to have a slightly broader view of things. What’s the best part of the role? That is the thoughtful, caring colleagues who come from a really wide range of backgrounds – digital, commercial, procurement, informatics, research and clinical. I work with people with so many different perspectives on how to deliver work, and I’m continually learning from them. What are you most proud of? There’s a small group of us who’ve pushed through bringing on board some quite new, emergent technology. Clinical teams put lots of data into the electronic patient record but as a trust we really struggle to make full use of it for service improvement and research because lots of it can’t be accessed. We’re hoping to run a number of projects using the CogStack platform which gives us flexible access to all this data so we can make better long-term decisions for our staff and patients. We’ve recently launched the platform across the trust and it’s been excellent to see people’s reaction to it and rewarding to see that come to fruition. What are you most excited about for the future? It’s been interesting in the last few years to see the proliferation of digital tools and I’m excited to see evidence come through at a local and national level which demonstrates the impact they’re having on patient care. How do you like to unwind outside work? I mostly spend time with my partner and friends. I run and cycle, preferably somewhere muddy! I grew up in the countryside and I like getting out into the hills or onto trails, and ideally end up in a pub! Taking care of your wellbeing Every day, our staff go above and beyond to care for our patients. Please take the time to also look after your own wellbeing: • 24/7 helpline (out of hours) contact Care First on 0800 174319 (24/7) service) for emotional and psychological support or access online via carefirst-lifestyle.co.uk; login details can be found on Freenet • Contact the Samaritans (on 116 123), NHS Helpline (111) or your GP • Cost of living worries can have a huge impact on our mental health – visit our financial wellbeing page on Freenet • Visit Freenet for a range of resources, information and other wellbeing tips
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