Taking Research to New Heights
Learn, Share and Aspire.
If I were being really honest, I never expected to be working in the healthcare sector and even more so for the CIRU team. I had initially anticipated working for around 18 months as a Consultant Project Manager for Greater Glasgow and Clyde working with the infrastructure team to aid in the deployment of new hardware and software way back in the ‘Windows 7’ days. I met so many fantastic people, cleaners, porters, nurses, and consultants all with one aim: improving the lives and care of patients. Working for the finance sector across London and Europe, I was accustomed to having all the resources and funding I needed. This was not to be said for the NHS and I felt guilty. I decided then and there I was going to change careers, join the NHS, and make change. Maybe it was fate, but two weeks before I was due to leave, I was asked to apply for a role within the Clinical Trials Unit and so my journey with EDGE and the NHS began.
There I was, zero experience of trials, in fact on my first day I heard the nurses discussing blind trials. Let’s just say I thought they were discussing ophthalmology and that remained a joke for some time. I was tasked with migrating all the patient and trials management information for the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre from the in-house system to EDGE 2, and that’s when clinical trials and all the complexities began to make sense to me. Within 12 months I felt I had never known anything else, and soon thereafter I transferred to the Glasgow CRF to carry out another EDGE implementation and data migration.
The EDGE Aspire Conference 2018 provided the catalyst that propelled my EDGE journey. I listened with enthusiasm to the breakout session by Tracey Hole "Finance- Getting the basics right" and thought we should be doing this. Here I was, back in the office with an old-style costing spreadsheet staring at the ceiling thinking of how to get this square peg into a round hole. I remained undeterred and so the ‘Import Tool‘ was born. That year was amazing, the late nights and long weekends developing, culminated in speaking at the EDGE Connected Conference 2019 and by then I had connected with so many from the EDGE community who saw merit in the work I had completed.
I had not long started working with NHS Lothian when COVID-19 came along, a dreadful time for so many but the research community rallied together to achieve great things. This is when my journey with Mat Davis from UH Dorset NHS Trust began, and having already began work on the new format, I joined forces with Mat. Albeit we were 446 miles apart, it quickly became apparent we had similar life backgrounds and ambitions to help the NHS. In that first 6 months I think we spent more time together than we did with our families and we are both very proud of all we achieved since: the new ICT Tool, the EDGE Assistant, Tracker, and Apportionment Module. He is now someone I consider as a great friend and it’s just a pity we are so far apart, but we do keep each other going. I should also mention a huge thanks to the finance team at Lothian, especially Hugh and Neil and for Monica who works alongside Mat who have been instrumental in the design and features of the tools.
And now to the Clinical Informatics Unit and EDGE. COVID-19 brought a whole new way of remote working and when the opportunity to work with a team I had long admired it was never in doubt. To be honest I have always been part of the team in spirit. I was literally thrown in at the deep end with the launch of EDGE 3 days after joining. It’s been challenging and eventful and there is never a dull moment. My aim here as the Programme Manager is assist the current EDGE user base and attract new Trusts and Networks with a focus on managing their finance. A new area of interest is that of Cybersecurity and maintaining the integrity of the data and improving the process and procedures within the department.
My new role does differ from that of a Lead Admin, but at its core my role still remains the same: to improve patient care and be part of a team where that ethos is already embedded in everything that they do.