Meet a CHIA – Kate Renzenbrink

We caught up with Kate Renzenbrink to talk about her journey into the digital health workforce and experience of undertaking CHIA. Kate is currently working as Chief Clinical Informatics Officer at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear hospital.

1. How did you get interested in IT/health informatics/digital health?

During my work as a Registered Nurse in the gynaeoncology team in a large public hospital, I also had another role as a patient liaison officer. I was coordinating care for women with suspected or diagnosed cancer and also working with all patients who had concerns about their care. I noticed that many of the issues experienced by patients were around access to information, as well as access to services. At the time, there was an opportunity to be sponsored by the Victorian Department of Health to study a Graduate Certificate in Health Informatics and I put my hand up for it. When I completed the course, I thought this is it, health informatics is absolutely the thing that is going to lead to improvements for patients and staff. We should work hard to give patients access to their own health information as partners in their healthcare. For people with chronic and ongoing health challenges, they are the continuity in their care, because there is still so much fragmentation. I have been very lucky to move into digital health leadership positions where patient experience and advocacy is still very much part of what I do.

I joined AIDH, which was then known as HISA, and saw the opportunity to become credentialled in health informatics. I did my CHIA exam next and I kept going and completed a Bachelor of Health Informatics and next year I will be starting a PhD in EMR optimisation for nurses.

I felt that CHIA would give me recognition and connections in health informatics and a platform to speak about the issues that I had been dealing with in my work as part of this growing expert group.

2. What do you enjoy most about working in this field?

I am pretty passionate about continuity of care. I think it relates to the professional practice framework we have as nurses – we work with people to achieve wellness, health and independence as much as possible. Part of that is to give patients access to their health data. Patients have an important role in monitoring their own safety and quality of care within the system.

I think a lot about the patients I have worked with and their experiences of the health system. Technology and health informatics can directly improve the patient experience because it enables high quality care to be realised with less of the workarounds and compromises: for example, the person who no longer has to travel for 5 hours from regional Victoria for a 20-minute appointment in Melbourne. Or the patient whose clinical care is targeted and timely as a result of electronic information sharing regarding allergies to medication

I have always been interested in system redesign, usability and how we work with applications and platforms. My role is tasked with rethinking the way that we can use information to improve systems for the people that use them, particularly nurses and midwifes who are one of the highest user groups of EMRs.

3. What benefits have you experienced after completing your CHIA credential?

I have got a lot out of CHIA and continue to maintain my credential, it’s important to keep it current from a professional development perspective in this digital health leadership role. CHIA is a nice vehicle to do this because the recertification process is structured, I think it helps keep you on track, you don’t let a whole year go by without exposing yourself to new knowledge and new ideas, as well as reinforcing those concepts you are already familiar with to meet our industry’s standard. It’s an investment in our digital health capability.

CHIA is a fantastic flag that says I can speak both languages (clinical and health informatics),

I can help my non-technical colleagues understand digital health, what the practical implications will be if there is an unplanned outage. The CHIA domains are crucial to making sense of how digital works in the healthcare context. It has set me up to build digital fluency, which is what’s needed to bring experience and knowledge to new situations in digital health. Not only being able to understand but also being able to respond and adapt. I think that is fundamental. I am happy to see that the Program has grown and we now have thousands of CHIA’s.

4. Any advice to others interested in completing the certification?

My advice would be to have a think about what stage you are at in your health informatics journey. CHIA is a recognition of your established experience and expertise. In that sense I think people would find it hard as an initial exploration of health informatics. Although, the CHIA resources are comprehensive, you need that initial understanding of the systems, procedures and practices in the context of your workplace. You also need an awareness of the bigger picture, what is happening nationally and internationally. It’s definitely something you can aim for if you are just starting out but there are other courses that may be more appropriate such as Digital Health 101. It’s really a recognition of niche expertise but I’m really glad there is room in there for people with a clinical background, people from industry and ICT. It’s big enough for everyone!