Paediatric Team
The paediatric team are managed by Marcia Rankin, Service Development Manager, and are supported by our Clinical Lead, Prof Robert Carachi.
Telemedicine Nurse Specialists – Sharon Levy, Hugh Lavelle and Lorraine Clydesdale.
In 2009 the posts of Telemedicine Nurse Specialist were created. These post holders act as the lead specialists in driving change, through the use of Telemedicine in Paediatrics. They are set to develop new clinical services and coordinate Telemedicine activities with fellow clinicians, managers and other healthcare staff.
Apart from liaising with external partners and provide consultation for the development of effective and efficient clinical programs, pilot projects and research related activities, the specialist nurses are also involve in:
- Researching worldwide paediatric telemedicine activities and using knowledge gained to develop new clinical services across NHS Scotland
- Developing, promoting and supporting new opportunities to utilise Telehealth facilities, including videoconferencing, for clinical, educational and managerial purposes
- Proposing and implementing changes to clinical practice and support effective change management processes
- Planning and organising the structure and processes necessary to implement new telemedicine services
- Providing specialist advice to colleagues in the provision of care between hospital, community or other settings
- Ensuring a smooth process for the delivery of distant consultations to patients and families
- Supporting professional staff in developing Telehealth expertise for clinical purposes through the development and delivery of specialist education and training programmes to colleagues
- Using research methodologies, undertake audits and evaluations of the impact of new services developed
The choice of employing experienced nurse specialist was taken through a strong belief that nursing input is an integral and essential component of most services that involve remote care provision, as demonstrated by NHS 24.
Technical Support – Mark Glass
In house technical support for the service is provided by a dedicated member of staff based at Yorkhill Hospital in Glasgow. In addition, a funded service agreement is in place with NHS Grampian to provide support for multi-site meetings hosted by the Grampian ‘Bridge’ and to provide support in the North of Scotland. It is anticipated that the team will shortly be strengthened in the South East of Scotland either through a support arrangement of the appointment of additional in-house support.