Introduction

The idea for this book was born on the evening of my final day working at a London teaching hospital, where I had spent 16 years. As I packed up the last few things from my office, a wave of emotions washed over me. Pride in what I had achieved, sadness at leaving behind a familiar world, and anxiety about stepping into the unknown. My career there had evolved from working clinically as a physiotherapist to taking on a senior leadership role in clinical informatics (formally, as an Allied Health Professions Information Officer). It felt like the closing of one chapter and the uncertain beginning of another. As a remedy to the unsettling uncertainty of this transition, my mind raced to capture everything I had learned about digital health into a working synopsis—a kind of intellectual safety net. I wanted to create a foundation I could carry into my next role: a digital health consultant whom health and care leaders could trust to inform and guide their organisational transformations. My goal was, and remains, to use my knowledge and experience to steer health and social care leaders towards improving not only the systems they implement but also the development of their clinical workforce in all things digital, data, and technology.