Digital Clinician of the Month
We shine a spotlight on one of our Digital Clinicians Network members as part of our new monthly feature.
Dr Alex Szolnoki is a busy man. He finds the time to be the Clinical Informatics Lead at Babylon whilst also doing a masters (at Cambridge no less). Not content with all of this on his plate he has also just gotten a puppy. We somehow managed to catch up with him for a chat.
Tell us about your current role and how you got there
I started my current role as Clinical Informatics Lead at Babylon in March 2020, but I have been with Babylon for the past 4 and a half years. I left clinical practice as I started specialty training, largely because I wanted more variety in my career and there were a lot of skills I wanted to learn that I knew I wouldn’t have the opportunity to explore had I stayed on the clinical conveyor belt.
I initially joined when Babylon was a much smaller startup, and was asked to be a clinical subject matter expert for the nascent AI team at Babylon. At that point, the role wasn’t very well defined, but it meant I got a lot of freedom in defining my own career development. In the years since joining, I’ve worked in clinical content, device governance, commercial projects and product management. In my current role, I manage a group of clinicians who take clinical responsibility for our data assets.
What do you think patients don’t know about the health tech industry but should?
The amount of regulation, due diligence and bureaucracy that goes into developing a technical solution. There is a strong and robust system of checks and balances, and the field is tightly regulated. With newer disruptive technologies, the regulators are trying to play catch-up, but they are increasingly getting more comfortable in setting standards. It’s important for patients to know how technologies are tested to guarantee quality and safety, as I feel this builds trust with patients. I think it’s also important for them to know some of the challenges health tech companies face trying to break into the industry, and these challenges often impact what is available and how quickly these solutions can be deployed to market.
What is the one thing that you hear people talk about in health tech that you think is overrated?
This is a controversial opinion, but a huge bugbear of mine is how people throw around the terms “AI” and “ML”. While these are powerful tools, and I don’t dispute that advances in ML methods are improving, but in my opinion, many of the people who talk about “AI in medicine” don’t know the first thing about these tools or what kind of problems they can be used to solve. This is a really key point to highlight, that these technologies are “tools”. And just like power tools, you use the right tool for the right problem. I wouldn’t hammer in a nail with a power sander. Currently, I think a lot of companies and start-ups feel the need to deploy “AI” (which is a very wooly term at the best of times) because it is some panacea for all problems. It’s not. At a lot of conferences, I hear about entrepreneurs “Using AI” to solve basic problems that would be much better solved by opening up a simple excel spreadsheet (at a minute fraction of the cost too).
I don’t deny that these tools are improving, but it’s not about the tool, it’s about the problem you’re trying to solve and how best to do that. I don’t think enough people understand the problems faced in healthcare and what would be required to tackle those problems. The underlying issues of data structures and data quality is far more vital.Throwing around the term “AI” is a good way to spot a fraud.
What do you think is an underrated area of health tech with significant future potential?
Electronic Health Records (EHRs). It’s not as sexy, and is certainly not a new concept, but EHRs often don’t get the look-in and resources they deserve. If Trusts and Health Providers want to use more advanced computational techniques on data, then it 100% relies on good quality data collection and storage, with enforcement of data standards. Without that good quality data, everything else is meaningless. EHRs (when properly used by “aware” and engaged staff) ensure the quality of that data. The issue is that not enough attention was paid to EHRs in initial roll-out to prioritise design and usability (cash strapped trusts and providers often cut the budget here or with staff training). This means that EHRs don’t often reach their full potential, and are often despised by front-line clinicians. But I think they’re due for a renaissance, and more attention will be given to integrating these systems into workflows that make them much more user friendly to busy clinicians, which will have long term positive gains in efficiencies, finance and knowledge discovery.
What do you think it will mean to be a clinician working in digital health in 10 years?
Hard to say. I think 2020 has certainly sped up technological deployments in the NHS and healthcare as a whole, and these changes aren’t going to regress once a vaccine is found. There will be much more room for health tech companies in providing care, and practicing clinicians will have to get up to speed on using these technologies, and be much more confident in critiquing and assessing their utility. I think there is a huge skills gap in data literacy in our current clinical workforce which is limiting their ability to truly engage with health tech and digital health. I think what is more certain is that the current workforce need to have their education re-worked to include issues of informatics so that clinicians can properly engage with whatever technologies we find ourselves using in 10 years time.
You’re doing a masters, what do you think you’re getting out of it? Should all digital clinicians do one?
For me, I love a more structured learning experience, and a masters really does provide that. In addition to that, the Masters I’m currently doing (MSt Health Data at Cambridge) has a really great group of students from many different industries. Our classes always involve a lot of discussion, and it’s really wonderful hearing a variety of opinions on what are very dynamic and new fields. The basic coding skills are also helpful to boot, as it makes me a better manager and leader in my company, but also gives me much more “hands on” experience working with dirty health data, meaning I can get a deeper understanding of data standards and data governance.
Do all clinicians need to do a masters? No, of course not. But it’s a shame that there’s not a wealth of opportunity to explore informatics in depth outside of a Masters setting. However, the health tech field is broad. There are loads of other different skill types required, including business acumen, communication skills, teaching, and user research. These things don’t necessarily require a masters to do, but if you’re serious about working in digital health and want to contribute to the development of digital solutions, time and effort has to be spent developing these skills further.
Tell us about one show you have on your Netflix Watch List
Currently nothing. But I’m just dying for Netflix to drop another “WTF” documentary, like Tiger King. Tiger King single handedly got us through the first lockdown. I hear Netflix has bought the rights to the new Anna Sorokin drama docu-series. I can’t wait to see that. Anna Sorokin is iconic.
Did you pick up any new hobbies or interests in lockdown?
I used the time to practice my cooking skills a bit more and pick up some complex recipes (including New Orleans style Gumbo and Chocolate Eclairs). Obviously, lockdown weight gain was an issue. I also just got a puppy, so that’s taking up a lot of time too.
Article by Janie Baxter, Digital Doctors Network Co-Founder
