News

Nurse and early career researcher wins fellowship in competitive national programme 24 Feb 2023

Rachael Lear, iCARE Research Fellow in Digital Health and Care Innovation, was recently awarded a Health Education England Topol Digital Fellowship.

She told us, "This 12-month fellowship programme will provide me with time and support to design and deliver my digital health project at the Trust. I will be exploring video-based patient records as a strategy to improve communication of older people’s individual support needs. This will involve working closely with the medicine for the elderly team, patient and carer representatives, and technology company Isla, a visual medical record platform provider. Through a programme of workshops and mentoring, I will learn specialist digital skills and digital transformation techniques to help with my work.

"Being awarded a Topol Digital Fellowship is a huge privilege because I will be supported to implement genuine change in the health service using technology in a way that works for clinical staff and patients. I am really looking forward to making the most of this opportunity to develop as an aspiring digital health leader."

Rachael is not the only one delighted with this fellowship. Erik Mayer, Director iCARE, NIHR Imperial BRC Secure Data Environment, shared with us, "I am delighted that Rachael has been successful in being awarded a Health Education England Topol Digital Fellowship. Through the fellowship programme, and its training components, Rachael will have the opportunity to develop new skills and knowledge in order to confidently lead digital health transformations in the NHS for the benefit of care staff and patients.

"This is a fantastic achievement and I look forward to supporting her for the duration of the programme as she leads the delivery of her digital innovation change project at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust."

Rachel will be conducting her fellowship at our new Digital Collaboration Space, Paddington Life Sciences. She will be working within the iCARE team which supports a number of digital health projects in Imperial, across the Northwest London population and the wider national healthcare system.