Waitematā Doctor “genuinely Humbled” To Win Clinical Informatics Leadership Award 2020

The winner of this year’s Clinical Informatics Leadership Award is Lara Hopley, an anaesthetist and Clinical Advisor Digital Innovations at Waitematā DHB.

More than 1000 public votes were cast to select the winner of the 2020 award.

Ministry of Health deputy director general data and digital Shayne Hunter presented the award at the HiNZ Networking Event in Auckland on November 19 at Spark Health.

Hopley receives a free pass and speaking slot at the 2021 HiNZ Conference in Wellington and $5000 from Spark Health, which she can use to fund further study or attend an international conference.

She said she was “genuinely humbled” to receive the award as the other two finalists were “incredible”.

“It’s all about teams and the only reason good things have happened is that good people have got together and we all pulled our weight,” she told eHealthNews.nz.

New Zealand’s Clinical Informatics Leadership Network worked in partnership with HiNZ to launch the Clinical Informatics Leadership Award in 2019 to recognise the important contribution clinicians make to the digital health sector.

Now in its second year, the award attracted six high calibre candidates from across New Zealand and clinical specialties and nominations celebrated cross sector collaboration, excellent communication skills and humble leadership.

Nominations were judged by Hunter, NZ Health IT chief executive Scott Arrol and HiNZ board chair and the 2019 Clinical Informatics Leadership Award winner Rebecca George, who selected three finalists.

The judges said, “Lara’s nomination identifies a significant level of expertise and skill across a broad range of informatic areas. Her nomination praises her skills in teaching, a willingness to share knowledge with colleagues, advocation for user design and proactive change management.

“Her steadfast leadership and the key role she played in the pandemic response, met the fast pace of clinical demand to adapt and broker essential collaborations. She is highly praised for her engagement and collaboration skills across her networks.”

The other two finalists were Karen Blake, head of clinical informatics at healthAlliance and Victoria Brevoort, clinical systems manager at Ryman Healthcare.

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