Chief Information Officer at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

Adrian Byrne

With over two decades of hands on experience in the healthcare industry, Adrian Byrne has established himself as a renowned expert in healthcare technology and innovation. He currently serves as chief information officer (CIO) at the University Hospital Southampton Foundation Trust.

Please tell our readers about your key roles and responsibilities in the organization.

My key roles and responsibilities involve managing the technology used by our clinical staff, who are looking after patients in around 1,200 beds plus over 100,000 emergency attendances and more than three quarters of a million outpatients per annum. We manage a range of applications, the network, servers, and cloud services, ensuring that our mission-critical paperless environment remains reliable.

We also manage other services such as hospital switchboard, and our health records function, which scans any clinical paper documents that we create or receive.

I am also responsible for developing and implementing policies that align with the national health service strategies and guidelines, which can often be a politically charged environment.

What are the challenges that you have noticed in the industry?

Implementing digital solutions in healthcare faces the challenge of building a compelling business case to secure investment. The industry faces budgetary limitations, and managing the transition to new systems for staff is also difficult. Program management expertise is necessary to overcome these challenges, as well as technical integration to avoid duplication in data entry. Introducing a system requires a well defined and articulated use case or purpose and compliance with clinical safety and regulations such as GDPR and other data storage/access considerations. A successful introduction of IT systems for clinical processes requires careful consideration of numerous factors.

What are some of the projects that you are working on?

We are a university teaching hospital that conducts a lot of research and has some of the brightest minds in the country so it never stands still for long. We are replacing legacy technology where we can but also making progress in areas such as the patient access space, growing online follow-up and virtual appointments, long-term condition management and virtual wards. Our platform for this is called My Medical Record, which is linked to our hospital's electronic medical record.

“When implementing a system, it's important to identify the problem and define the use case. Ensuring clinical safety and complying with regulations such as GDPR are crucial. ”

We are also expanding our digital imaging network (PACS and radiology system) locally to include another large hospital in our group to enable remote review/diagnosis and transfer of patients. Additionally, we are working on a digital imaging project for pathology which will put microscope slides online for reporting and archive.

What would be your advice to your fellow peers in the industry?

My advice to fellow peers in the industry would be to avoid getting caught up in the hype and trends of the moment. Instead, focus on scalability and integration with other technologies. Always ensure that you have access to your data and consider using open-source solutions to gain access to it. It's essential to involve clinical leaders upfront and make sure that you're solving a valid use case. Don't use technology just for the sake of it, and be prepared to be an outlier when necessary. Ultimately, always strive to do the right thing.