People who choose to work in health informatics have had a ‘fairly rough ride’ with no obvious career pathways and inappropriate remuneration, according to the chair of the first elected UK Council for Health Informatics Professionals.
Speaking at a reception to celebrate the elected UKCHIP’s inaugural meeting, Dr Glyn Hayes, explained the difficulties health informaticians had experienced in ‘finding a professional home’.
The UKCHIP, which was set to regulate and improve health informatics, has declared its purpose “to develop a credible and valued health informatics profession for the benefit of patients and those working in the field.”
Dr Hayes reminded the audience: “Where done badly, health informatics has killed or damaged people.”
He enumerated instances of informatics omissions and miscalculations that fall into this category including: past problems with the London Ambulance Service system; incorrect reporting of abnormal cervical smears that led to recall problems; incorrect radiotherapy doses and wrong reporting of Down’s syndrome risks.
“We are now increasing the impact of informatics in healthcare. We have to start being more professional about how these things are done,” he said.
So far 650 people have completed voluntary registration with UKCHIP. The council’s current strategy for increasing this number centres on a drive to persuade NHS employers to make registration a requirement for relevant employees.
Eventually, the council predicts that registration will become mandatory.
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