Hello, my name is Gordon Elder and I am an Interim Operational Director for Digital Health within Newcastle Hospitals leading on digital innovation at the Newcastle Hospitals.
This position allows me to share my experience of the transformation of this complex and highly specialised organisation into one of most successful and mature Global Digital Exemplar NHS Trusts in England, as we oversaw the exchange of our paper record with a high quality digital solution through our ‘Paperlite’ programme.
I am passionate about transformational change that improves clinical practice which in turn enhances patient safety and patient experience. I believe that the delivery of effective and efficient IT services is integral to achieving those ambitions.
My role at the Newcastle Hospitals allows me to use both my extensive nursing experience and operational knowledge – combined with my skills as an accomplished digital leader – to help bridge the gap between technical and clinical teams.
It’s an exciting time to see our NMAHP colleagues getting more engaged in this field and our Digital Health Team is here to continue to support our colleagues, ensuring that they get the very best out of the digital technology available to us today and in the future.
My journey into digital health
Following a number of years as a nurse in coronary care, cardiac intensive care and cardiology in Belfast and London, I decided to specialise in transplantation and in 2003 I joined the Newcastle Hospitals as a regional donor and recipient transplant coordinator. Six years later I progressed into a Matron role at the Freeman Hospital’s Outpatient and Medical Records Department.
I became the Directorate Manager for the department in 2014 and over the next 5 years developed a real insight into the coordination and management of patient records and we began to see the dawning of the NHS’s digital era with the introduction of the Patient Administration System or PAS.
During this time that I could see the true benefits of digitising how we record, communicate and deliver healthcare for our patients, both for their safely and experience whilst in our care and the power of harnessing the depth of data and intelligence available to us through the systems we use.
As my passion for the use of innovative technology has grown, I have become ever more committed to sharing this passion with my nursing, midwifery and allied health professional colleagues – ensuring they feel supported to use our digital systems to the best of their ability so that they enjoy their experience using them and can see the benefits for our patients.
I am also very passionate about empowering our patients and enhancing their experience utilising emerging technologies and digital clinical pathways.
Keeping our patients safe and preparing our future clinical workforce are the key priorities for the Digital Health Team within the Trust as we embrace the digital change that we will undertake in the future.
Contact us
Our Digital Health team is here to support all of our staff. If you have any burning issues or would like to get involved in our work we want to hear from you.
Email our Digital Health Team
