Three University Hospitals of Northamptonshire team members win national digital awards

Three members of the University Hospitals of Northamptonshire (UHN) Digital team have won their categories in the national Digital Health Networks awards.

Natasha Chare, Chief Digital Information Officer (CDIO) has won CIO of the Year, Ramandeep Kaur, Chief Clinical Information Officer (CCIO), has won CCIO of the Year, and Tosin Akinlabi, Clinical Safety Officer, has won Rising Star of the Year.

The awards aim to shine a light on the best and brightest digital leaders shaping the future of healthcare within the NHS celebrating innovation, dedication, and excellence, and recognising and celebrating the remarkable achievements and contributions of individuals and teams who are driving transformation through digital technologies.

They said: “Natasha became one of the youngest female CDIOs in the country. She has brought digital teams together into one UHN team and has been a big champion of communication and engagement within digital and with the wider organisation.

“Her nomination commended Natasha for her unwavering support for her teams and empowering them in their roles. Natasha was nominated for driving the digital agenda forward at UHN enabling the achievements of the digital teams including implementing single sign on and the Northamptonshire Shared Care Record. “

For Ramandeep they said: “As a pharmacist by background, Ramandeep is believed to be the first pharmacist in the country to become a CCIO for a group of hospitals. Ramandeep’s nomination commended her focus on supporting and developing others, and particularly her passion for supporting the next generation of digital leaders including mentoring through the Digital Health CCIO mentoring programme.

“She champions collaboration – she is an advocate of including representation from all areas of the hospital when implementing change. Ramandeep is described as an inspiration to other future digital leaders.”

The judges described Tosin as “someone heavily invested in the digital agenda, with a current focus on digital clinical safety, an aspect so important but often overlooked. Tosin quickly made an impact in her current role, she has completely rewritten the organisation’s clinical safety policy and is an advocate of rigour with clinical safety. Tosin also is keen to help others and has even written her own book: ‘An Introduction to Digital Nursing’.

She is also part of the Midlands Shared Decision Making Council and a recent Shuri Fellowship digital graduate.”

Natasha, speaking on behalf of all three team members, said; “We were already thrilled to be announced as finalists alongside inspirational leaders across the NHS so to be announced as winners for our categories is unbelievable and very humbling.

“I am particularly thrilled to win alongside Ramandeep and Tosin who are inspirational women within the Digital team. We recognise that these awards are also testament to our wider teams at UHN; these awards represent fantastic external recognition for all the hard work our teams do every day to move forward in our digital ambitions for the benefits of all of our patients and our colleagues.”

Outlining the wins online the Awards team described why the trio received their awards – presented at a Summer School event in Durham on July 18.

A special mention to our Digital Maternity team, Gayle Dellow and Laura Bissell, who were nominated for Outstanding Team of the Year in the Digital Health awards too.