Meet Healthcode’s Director of Engineering
Tell us about your role and responsibilities?
Director of Engineering is a new role which was created to ensure we use the most advanced tech and follow the highest standards in building and maintaining our products and services.
I lead a team that focuses on the areas of enterprise architecture, cloud engineering, data engineering and emerging tech including AI. We define and maintain the tech strategy and governance framework for our different product teams so they can focus on designing and evolving our solutions.
Members of the Engineering team are part of product delivery and provide coaching and direction so we can be sure we’re building in quality at the point of design.
Why is tech so important in the health sector?
It’s playing an increasingly visible and important role in our lives. Many of us now pay with mobile wallets, read and watch streaming services on our mobiles and keep in touch with loved ones through messaging and video call services. This is true of the healthcare sector too, where tech is helping improve the way we work in many ways, including online appointment booking, video consultations and back-office tasks like invoicing.
At Healthcode, we’ve always understood the opportunities that tech offers, as well as the complexities and challenges involved. We don’t just want to build the right products, but also build the products in the right way using the latest tech and tools. It’s my responsibility to ensure the organisation has the capability to explore and incorporate the latest innovations.
There’s currently a huge buzz around AI – what’s Healthcode doing in this area?
We’re always looking for smarter ways of working in the private healthcare sector so naturally we’re excited about the possibilities of AI tech such as natural language processing and predictive data analytics. It’s a great opportunity to enhance the performance and capabilities of our solutions and I’m working closely with our developers to incorporate Healthcode Intelligence (Hi) across our product ecosystem.
The Hi logo which we unveiled at our WAY24 stakeholder event will show customers which products and services include intelligent features developed by Healthcode to support decision-making or accomplish time-consuming tasks in an instant. We want Hi to be shorthand for secure, accurate and easier ways of working.
In addition, I’m always exploring the industry landscape for inspiration, from new third-party AI solutions which we can usefully integrate with our products and services, to opportunities to improve the way we work within Healthcode.
How are our customers already benefitting from this tech?
Several of our products and services already use Hi. For example, our Shortfall Collection Service intelligently processes insurer remittances to identify shortfall indicators and automatically creates patient invoices to recover the shortfall amount where the provider has chosen this option.
We’re also developing more intelligent features for ePractice such as modelling-based diagnostic pathways and automated transcription from speech. These are coming soon and will be fantastic for customers as it should make the time they spend with patients even more productive.
Of course, many other aspects of private healthcare are ideally suited to the incorporation of Hi, like clinical coding, management of availability, invoice validation, fraud detection, risk and security management and these are also on our development roadmap.
Why is it so important for Healthcode to champion advanced tech?
We want to inspire and drive the adoption of Hi initiatives that have a positive impact across our sector, from improving patient access to supporting customers with strategic decision making. I think we’re uniquely placed to do this for two reasons. Firstly, operating at the heart of UK private healthcare for over 20 years means we’ve developed a deep understanding of the market and our customers’ needs. Secondly, our recent modernisation programme means we already have the powerful system architecture and tech required to deliver robust, scalable and reliable solutions.
At the same time, we know that AI has to be used responsibly and ethically in healthcare organisations to maintain public confidence. We’ve therefore adopted five governing principles to ensure we meet the highest standards when developing our AI products and services. Starting with safety and security, these include human-centred design, transparency and contestability and are in line with industry best practice.
What do you enjoy most about working here and the team you work with?
Having just celebrated ten years with Healthcode, the two things that impress most are the vibrant and open culture where we always welcome different viewpoints and the company’s commitment to modern and agile ways of working. We’re always looking for better ways to approach tasks.
And finally, how do you switch off outside work?
My idea of relaxation is sitting in our garden with a cup of tea but I also love reading and catching up with the cricket action. My daughter keeps me busy too with her curiosity about life. To celebrate her fifth birthday, we crafted surprises from everyday household items and hid them around our home – she really enjoyed the chance to play detective and hunt for them.
