Consultant - Medical Informatics

The Hospital: The Royal Children’s Hospital’s (RCH) Vision is “A world where all kids thrive”. RCH is a cornerstone member of the Melbourne Children’s Campus, partnering with Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, The University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics and The Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation. RCH has cared for the children and young people of Victoria for more than 150 years since it was founded in 1870. A full range of paediatrics and adolescent health services are provided plus tertiary and quaternary care for the most critically ill and medically complex patients in Victoria, Tasmania, southern NSW and other states around Australia and overseas. The Hospital has more than 6,000 staff, a budget of $850M, 12 wards and 350 beds. Annually, the RCH has 300,000+ Specialist Clinic appointments, 90,000+ Emergency Department presentations and 20,000 elective surgeries. The RCH is committed to the Child Safe Standards. RCH enjoys high employee engagement and is committed to staff safety and a positive culture through enactment of our Compact. For further Information on RCH is available here. About the Role: This is an ongoing part-time position at 0.6 FTE within the Digital Innovation and EMR Team. The role is able to commence immediately. This is a highly strategic medical role at the forefront of shaping medical informatics and digital medical practice at a digitally forward and innovative organisation. Flexible work options are available, including ability to combine with clinical roles and duties. The Consultant – Medical Informatics leads the engagement of the medical workforce in the safe and effective use of digital technology, the EMR, data, analytics and AI to deliver interoperable, patient and family-centred, user-friendly and evidence-based care. The role also provides expert clinical input to the architectural design, implementation, evaluation and analysis of health information systems, data platforms and emerging technologies, working with multidisciplinary teams including data scientists, software engineers, analysts and researchers across RCH. Specifically, the role fosters medical engagement and digital capability across the workforce, and together with the CMIO, provides clinical governance leadership for key domains including: EMR, virtual care, data and analytics and artificial intelligence. Under the professional leadership of the CMIO, the role delivers medical EMR optimisation, designs and delivers informatics education for the medical workforce, provides expert clinical input to EMR build and workflow design, supports the clinically meaningful use of data and AI, and mentors junior medical staff in informatics roles. The role contributes to the creation and delivery of the medical digital health and EMR optimisation plans and deputises for the CMIO when required. Internally, this position will also be known and/or referred to as: Consultant - Medical Informatician. Classification for this position will be according to the Medical Specialists (Victorian Public Health Sector) Enterprise Agreement *********, Specialists Year 1-9. What you'll achieve: EMR Optimisation and Clinical Systems: • Work collaboratively with the CMIO and EMR leadership group to develop and deliver the medical EMR optimisation plan • Provide governance of medical workflows and build for RCH, and input to Parkville EMR medical workflows • Respond to medical and surgical EMR workflow and build issues with innovative solutions, providing informed, expert advice to analysts on medical workflows and Epic tools to inform build • Identify opportunities to optimise clinical workflows, documentation, order sets and clinical decision support, and work with clinical departments to improve usability, safety and efficiency, with attention to paediatric-specific requirements • Participate in collaborative review of improvement suggestions from RCH users to evaluate, prioritise and support improved build and implementation, including scoping and implementing new Epic functionality • Lead and contribute to the user experience improvement program and support clinicians in adopting new EMR features, including upgrades and new build • Support the use of My RCH Portal and other consumer-facing digital tools to enable patient and family-centred, connected care • Participate in EMR and digital clinical governance committees, and support incident review and system improvement where digital systems contribute to clinical risk Education and Capability: • Act as curriculum owner for junior medical staff (JMS) and consultant onboarding, personalisation and optimisation education • Work with the DI&EMR team to support JMS cohort education delivery, including preparing Medical Informatics Fellows to deliver high-quality education, with ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement of the program • Lead integration of informatics education with learning opportunities across the organisation, such as JRMO teaching, ward rounds and departmental meetings • Use data from a variety of sources (e.g. Epic signal/efficiency data, focus groups) to underpin the content of new starter and optimisation programs • Identify and respond to learning, development and training needs of medical staff related to the EMR, reporting, analytics, AI literacy and clinical informatics • Develop collaborative relationships with Parkville health services, university partners and other hospitals to enhance learning and promote excellence in informatics, education and digital capability Data, Analytics and AI: • Understand and use data, including EMR data, to drive and evaluate improvements in services and daily operations • Engage with data and analytics teams to design, develop, pilot and implement data evaluation, analysis and visualisation initiatives that are clinically meaningful and actionable • Provide clinical expertise and context for healthcare challenges and proposed digital, data and AI solutions, particularly in relation to data-driven quality improvement • Support the clinical evaluation, validation and monitoring of AI-enabled tools and predictive analytics, contributing to their safe, ethical and effective adoption under the CMIO's clinical governance framework • Support and undertake medical and clinical research in the use of digital technology, data and AI, in partnership with MCRI and The University of Melbourne Mentorship and Supervision: • Onboard, supervise and develop the skills of JMS Informatics Fellows, Registrars and Residents, including supervision of their performance in these roles • Mentor JMS informatics projects and support colleagues across the organisation to develop their informatics capabilities Engagement and Other Responsibilities: • Provide consultation to RCH staff, departments and the EMR team on medical EMR workflows, and provide opportunities for feedback from a range of medical staff, including on quality and safety • Lead and contribute to EMR optimisation and innovation projects that leverage technology (e.g. build optimisation, Choosing Wisely), and contribute informatics knowledge to organisational improvement projects • Deputise for the Chief Medical Information Officer when required • Assist in the evaluation of RCH digital capabilities and gaps, including horizon scanning for best practice in clinical informatics, digital health, data and AI • Provide leadership and representation of medical informatics at relevant RCH and Parkville governance groups as delegated by the CMIO • Engage with key stakeholders within the Centre for Health Analytics, Parkville informatics teams, and The University of Melbourne Centre for the Digital Transformation of Health If this sounds like you, or if you require more information, please click here for the position description. Your skills and experience: • MBBS or equivalent • Current Specialist Medical Registration with AHPRA • Epic Physician Builde