Richard Fitzgerald and Tristan Pahuyo gain digital pioneer fellowship place
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Richard Fitzgerald, an academic clinical fellow in special care dentistry, and Tristan Pahuyo, nursing informatics link, have been named two of thirty-seven NHS staff to be successful in gaining a place on Digital Health London's Digital Pioneer Fellowship.
The programme supports change makers employed by NHS organisations in London and the South East to design and lead transformation projects underpinned by digital innovation.
As the NHS continues to respond to and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, digital innovation remains vital to the health and social sector.
The 2020/21 cohort of Fellows come from organisations spanning London and the South East, and represent a diverse range of roles, departments and levels within the NHS.
Eighteen are administrative staff, eight are Allied Health Professionals, six are medical professionals and five are nurses.
Thirty percent of the cohort identify as BAME which is a relatively high proportion when comparing to the latest overall NHS workforce statistics which show that for NHS staff whose ethnicity was known, 79.2 percent were White (including White ethnic minorities), and 20.7 percent were from all other ethnic groups.
The 37 Fellows will be part of an action focused learning community focused on accelerating the pace of digital transformation within their respective NHS organisations.
Over the 12-month programme, the Fellows will have access to workshops, resources, and events throughout the year to share challenges and experience, learn from experts and collaborate to co-design solutions.
Richard Fitzgerald, an Academic Clinical Fellow in Special Care Dentistry, has been leading a quality-improvement project piloting and evaluating the roll-out of My Health Guide, an app to help adults with a learning disability manage their healthcare, at the Royal London Hospital; the first in a secondary care environment.
Richard aims to develop the skills needed to maximise the benefits of his current project and to lead the uptake of future digital innovations in special care dentistry.
Tristan, who's also a critical care nurse at Barts Heart Centre, has helped staff adapt to digital systems such as Cerner and played a key role in rolling out the WeConnect programme at St Bartholomew's Hospital.
Tristan said: “As one of the five nurses in the fellowship, I'm thrilled to be at the forefront of leveraging digital health leadership in transformation of care."
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To read more about Richard and Tristan and find the full list of this year’s Fellows, browse their profiles here.