Involve junior doctors in IT development, conference told

Speaking this week at HC2013 in Birmingham, the national health IT conference and exhibition, Dr Wai Keong Wong said junior doctors could offer valuable insights into hospital operations.

Dr Wong, a haemotology registrar at the Royal Free London Trust, highlighted the fact that most junior doctors are aged between 24 and 38, the age range largely responsible for innovations at tech firms such as Google, Facebook, Apple and Microsoft.

“In most other organisations this is the age where efforts are put into cultivating and developing the skills necessary to lead organisations and services in the future,” Dr Wong said.

“This doesn’t quite happen in the NHS and I think we are missing a trick.”

Junior doctors’ frequent change of jobs makes it harder for them to be involved in IT processes at individual hospitals, but it is essential that they are encouraged, Dr Wong said. The registrar said he had worked in four cities, 10 different hospitals and in more than 20 departments in recent years.

“We are a high-achieving bunch, we are highly motivated and working in many different hospitals, we see when things are done well, or not done so well, so we can bring a lot of intelligence to organisations,” Dr Wong added.

He called for IT managers not to dismiss the experiences of junior doctors and urged them to start conversations with junior staff in their own hospitals.