The first survey of serving NHS chief clinical information officers has highlighted the deep clinical experience that is being brought to the new role.
However, it has also shown that CCIOs are working 50% more time on their IT and information leadership roles than their organisations have actually allocated to them.
They name achieving clinical engagement and information strategy as their top two priorities.
EHealth Insider set up the EHI CCIO Campaign to encourage every NHS organisation to consider appointing a CCIO to lead on IT and information projects.
Its work has been taken forward by the CCIO Leaders Network, which holds its first annual conference alongside EHI Live 2012 at the NEC in Birmingham tomorrow.
Wai Keong Wong, the chair of the CCIO Leaders Network advisory panel, said: “This in-depth survey reveals that the challenges that CCIOs face across different organisations have greater similarities than differences.
“Most identified the majority of their work as as guiding clinicians and decision makers in their workplace through the process of digitisation of healthcare; the most significant change in work practice in the past century.
“Change management and clinical engagement were identified as core skills of a CCIO. However, there does seem to be a need for greater technical skills, real or perceived, about the foundations of software deployment and development.
“In the course of the next year, the CCIO Leaders Network will seek to respond to some of these needs, but this will not be sustainable without the involvement and resources of the NHS Commissioning Board and the traditional royal medical colleges, individually or collectively.”
The confidential email survey was sent to 22 individuals – the first 12 NHS CCIOs to be appointed and the ten additional clinicians who are members of the network’s CCIO advisory panel. Seven completed the survey.
The results show that the official amount of time dedicated to CCIO roles is on average two days a week; but when asked how many days the CCIO role takes respondents said it was averaging three days a week.
One respondent said that there was no fixed amount of time. “It’s very much on an ‘as needed’ basis, by the hour rather than by the day.”
The two top responsibilities undertaken by CCIOs are information strategy and clinical engagement, both on 86%. These are followed by quality, procurement and commissioning for quality and innovation.
Two-thirds of CCIOs said they felt they had sufficient authority in their organisation to carry out the role. One said: “I’d prefer to have a formal role, but its early days and the [clinical commissioning group] has more important things on its mind.”
It was clear that who a CCIO reports to varies widely, with medical director most common. Others include the chief executive, the chief operating officer, and the director of informatics.
Two-thirds say that the CCIO role is the first formal IT and informatics role they have held, though several had previously been members of IT strategy boards and project teams. All but one have held the CCIO role for less than three years, most for less than 12 months.
However, this doesn’t mean that CCIOs are green. Five of the seven respondents said they have been a clinician for more than 20 years; and most held other senior posts within their organisations.
Asked what the key skills they bring to the CCIO role, respondents cited a combination of clinical, management and technical skills; others cited experience or change management and clinical management as key.
When it came to qualifications, only two respondents said they had professional qualifications in management. Only one said they had a professional IT qualification.
Four said they weren’t looking to take a specific qualification to develop as a CCIO while two said they were; including a Masters in Computing Science.
Areas identified as needing help included: “understanding what is available” and “managing software development.”
Dr Wong said: “There is a clear call to provide educational and collaborative space for CCIOs that crosses traditional boundaries and organisations.
“Let us not forget that most CCIOs have yet to be appointed. We need to understand the needs of these potential and aspiring CCIOs of the future.”
Although a growing number of CCIOs are being appointed, a variety of titles are being used by clinicians who identify themselves wholly or partly as CCIOs, ranging from clinical director for IT to IM&T advisor and clinical quality director.
The respondents belonged to a broad mix of Royal Medical Colleges and professional networks, including the Faculty for Medical Leadership and Management, the CCIO Leaders Network and Clinical Leaders Network.
Asked what external and peer support they’d find most useful all identified online sharing of best practice and an online peer network as the most useful. Half-day local events and in-depth national events were the next most popular.