Published on: 27 January 2023

Hello, my name is Daniel Hallen and I use the pronouns of he and him. I've recently joined ELHT as the new Chief Information Officer and have been invited to guest blog this week.

You're probably familiar with the stereotype that IT folk work in a dark basement poking about with wires and boxes. That's probably true about some of my career, but a combination of age and technology advancement means that digital and data are part of our everyday lives. Who would have thought you would carry about a powerful mini computer every day in the form of a phone.

Today, I want to talk to you about the eLancs work and the new Electronic Patient Record (ePR). In June this year, we'll be going live with a new digital system that, essentially, will run all our operational and clinical services. eLancs is the grouping of systems that all work together to help us all do our jobs.

I'll talk to you a little about my own healthcare journey to show you how digital information can really help.

Some of you know this, but I have a couple of heart conditions and I'm T2 diabetic, which means I have interactions with clinical staff in both Lancashire, where I live, and Manchester, where my heart care is. I also have an ICD (defib) fitted in my chest.

For clinicians it means that all involved can see my medication (live), what my results are, what my heart is doing and most importantly if there is anything that needs changing. It also means much of my healthcare is remote and I only need to go to Manchester once a year for a tune up.

If I had an emergency NWAS, ELHT and others would be able to see who I am, what meds I take and what my normal heart rhythm is. I can also access my information and make informed decisions on my own healthcare and that cake I probably shouldn't be eating…

eLancs will bring that richness of information to the Trust and allow us to record our interactions with patients and make sure patient care is the best it can be.

It also allows us to automate some things, such as transfers of information, enabling us to make good operational decisions.

As we move into the countdown (20 weeks this Friday) you'll start to see much more information about superuser training for our colleagues, where we are at with the system build and of course some improvements in other bits of IT (networks etc).

I also want to thank each and every one of you who is participating in eLancs as you're helping us all build the digital hospital.

To our superusers, thank you for being super and for stepping forward to help our colleagues through this. If you want to be a superuser, then please let us know by informing your manager, who should then contact the eLancs team on eLancs@elht.nhs.uk

If you want to support the project but don't feel like you're a ‘techie’, why not join us as an ambassador instead? You don’t need an in-depth knowledge of the system, we just need you to help us spread the word. To become an ambassador, please email digitalcomms@elht.nhs.uk

eLancs is the big start to our ambitions as a digital Trust and you'll all share the journey towards our next steps of being a digital health and care leader within Lancashire and South Cumbria.

It goes without saying that I’m going to be an advocate for digital and data. I’m a geek and I have had a lifetime playing with technology. I know that most of you will have a mobile phone and use tech every day at work, so you probably know more about tech than you think you know. Let’s explore some of that together!

That's probably enough from me today, but I want to ask you all to continue to support the eLancs way and talk to us with any ideas about digital and data that you might have.

Thank you all for reading, be safe and well and hope to speak to you again soon.

Best wishes,

Daniel