I was recently set a challenge: two actually. I like a challenge or two. The first challenge was to draw on a post-it note a picture of myself and to describe my role. As there was a prize for the ‘best caricature’ I naturally put my best effort into my artwork. The second challenge was to write a blog post. As this was to be my first blog I thought it should at least explain what I wrote on the post-it note.

In our organisation we are now two and a half months in to the rollout of our ‘Paperlite’ programme under the Global Digital Exemplar Programme body of work. From this we have moved a huge swathe of our paper-based processes on to the computer (It’s a start!) and have started to practise like we have a true Electronic Health Record. As I was told at the start of my Informatics journey by my then CCIO, Dr Rob Allcock: “All improvement requires change, but not all change is improvement”.

My name is Matthew, and I am a Doctor – a Dermatologist to be exact. Or at least that was true until more recently. I suppose I identify now as more ‘bi-professional’ or ‘It’s complicated’. It has become complicated by trying to build my niche in Clinical Informatics, alongside my training as a Dermatologist.