Well, that was a whirlwind!
After 18-months at NHSX, my 6-month temporary secondment has reached its end.
It’s always hard when a job finishes. The secondment was twice extended, and that let me carry on defining open technology standards for the NHS. Now it is over and I’m a bit sad. The pandemic seems to heighten all emotions, doesn’t it?
I’m luckier than most. I’m still employed. The whole point of a secondment is a short-term loan to share skills and experiences. I’m returning to my home department – GDS. So I’m still fighting the good fight on open technology.
Change, however difficult, is necessary. The people you want to kick-start an organisation are not necessarily those you need to sustain an organisation. Teams need to grow and evolve – as do I.
In my head, I know it’s right for me to move on. I’m not sure that makes it easier.
The team back in ‘X are fantastic and are doing great things. I hope that I’ve left a little bit of legacy there. And I can’t wait to see what they achieve next.
For now, as ever, onwards and upwards!
A few highlights, in Tweet form.
Days like this, I bloody love my job with @NHSX!
Open Standards ✅
Open Source ✅
Accessibility ✅I'm determined to get the future pretty evenly distributed.https://t.co/PxTGsjtY9D pic.twitter.com/fzf0zPSEd6
— Terence Eden (@edent) April 4, 2019
What does it mean for #NHSX to be an open source organisation? New blogpost by NHSXer @edent
(See if you can spot the bug in the code!)
— NHSX (@NHSX) April 24, 2019
Great @NHSX away day on values and behaviours.. how we support the diversity of citizens needs and the power of diversity of our teams..
Go @NHSX , go diversity, go beards! @matthewsgould @MattHancock @NHSCCIO @krfarrington @edent @iainoneil @hadleybeeman @NHSEngland @NHS_RobW pic.twitter.com/FRDfb5QD83— indi singh (@mr_indisingh) April 25, 2019
The future is here, if it’s not open we don’t want it……@NHSCCIO @nhscio @NHSX @MattStibbs @edent #Interoperability #NHSX #DUEC2019 pic.twitter.com/5U2WJZ6VUM
— Emma Harris (@EmmaHarris_NHS) May 14, 2019
'It's absolutely about users first'@edent on designing with the end user in mind to enable the smooth adoption of new NHS #digital tools#KFdigital19 pic.twitter.com/wxt4Avp5sf
— InterSystems UK (@InterSystemsUK) May 22, 2019
One of the many reasons I love working with the @NHSX team.https://t.co/Sh8na30eOb#MakeThingsOpen pic.twitter.com/hgtMXaPPCN
— Terence Eden (@edent) May 24, 2019
If you're at #cynam come say hi to @hadleybeeman & @edent. They're talking about CYBER! pic.twitter.com/oxgt84OM3N
— NHSX (@NHSX) June 4, 2019
Great two days @NHSHackDay integrating NHS API with voice assistant. Amazing work #TeamAlexaSkillshd 🥈2nd place🥈 #nhshd @Nikki_Kahllon @jonathantelfer @edent @amcunningham @JoRWinter @MikeMonteithDev @DomenicoCorapi pic.twitter.com/9aQYA9f6iY
— Olaolu Oloyede (@OlaoluOloyede1) June 16, 2019
NEW BLOG
What did we learn at NHS Hack Day? @edent reveals all: 👇https://t.co/eoi8KKhWfk
— NHSX (@NHSX) June 27, 2019
Great to see the launch of @nhsx and the diversity of beards, females and 'matts' in the selfie 🤗🤗 @edent @krfarrington @matthewsgould @MattHancock
All the best……. https://t.co/5Fpa2ExaqJ
— indi singh (@mr_indisingh) July 3, 2019
Working at @NHSX is never dull. Spent an interesting morning with CyberDyne Systems(!) talking about medical robots.
👩⚕️🤖!
どうもありがとうございました。 pic.twitter.com/jQQMSEBbvQ— Terence Eden (@edent) July 8, 2019
Interesting talk by @edent from @NHSX on new 3Os for data.
1. Open standards.
2. Open data (but not confidential data)
3. Open source to speedup innovation.#HETT19 @HETTShow #digitalhealth pic.twitter.com/tvIYvF2WxC— Signum Health (@signumhealth) October 2, 2019
We've set out our position on standards pretty clearly. We're very pro and will look to adopt the best international open standards, but in most cases there's no point in us developing our own bespoke standards. See @edent 's recent comments at HETT:https://t.co/gghQtzYvgc
— NHSX (@NHSX) October 3, 2019
When I say NHSX, you go 🙅 !#ukgc20 pic.twitter.com/7C6FmTdh6R
— Terence Eden (@edent) January 18, 2020
"Which part of “Make things open, it makes things better” did you not understand?"
Intimidating photo by @aShropLad https://t.co/CDMhYBnJk9#ukgc20 pic.twitter.com/z4vPMX1kOg
— Terence Eden (@edent) January 23, 2020
You can now access most NHS services from your mobile, with no data charges.
In awe of the team who pulled this together very quickly. https://t.co/ogLzCc8z97— Terence Eden (@edent) March 18, 2020
Winner of the #NHSX award is…
PharmaSafe!
Uses image recognition to see what drug you've been prescribed.
Then scrapes the BNF to see adverse interactions. (No API, booo!)
Then displays it on the phone.
Brilliant mix of technologies & an excellent demo. pic.twitter.com/nWPaCIAsgg— Terence Eden (@edent) March 1, 2020
Today we recognise @openuk_uk Director @edent who heads up #opentechnology @NHSX and is one of our UK NHS Heroes https://t.co/hSmrwaADt5 pic.twitter.com/bCmsXClYwW
— OpenUK (@openuk_uk) March 25, 2020
📣New tech blog 📣
The code behind the NHS Covid-19 App.
We have Open Sourced the code behind the new NHS COVID-19 app. Our Head of Open Tech @edent discusses the open source offer behind the beta version of the app.https://t.co/Po6nmidg8X pic.twitter.com/5GuUm2UzuX
— NHSX (@NHSX) May 8, 2020
Hey gang,
We've now published the *full* git commit history for the NHSX Isle of Wight beta apps.
🤖 https://t.co/YRStAvpEOh
🍏 https://t.co/BBHunINVKa
Took a bit longer than expected, but glad we got there. Much more to come, I hope. pic.twitter.com/TxiVtHBETP— Terence Eden (@edent) June 26, 2020
Great shift mate 🙂
Back into the frying pan now!
great to have you back to central gov, sort of 🙂
Good to have you back!
you’ll be missed!
Forgot you’d be coming back! 🙌
lucky for you it was a nice quiet period…umm…oh… 😉
Welcome back to central government. It’s been so enlightening following your work at NHS X, excited to see what you do next. I love how you change the world by being yourself 😊
Nicely illustrated, with Tweets! Although, committing the faux pas of crossing Dr Who image with a Star Trek episode title…
Onwards! 🙂
I only know you via here and folk who know you talking to me about you and it has been a lesson in overcoming criticism (largely born from others’ fear and uncertainty) through integrity. Enjoy the absolutely well earned break.
X will miss you I’m sure and we’ll miss you being in there championing the importance of all things open 🙂
You picked an… interesting period for your secondment! Something for the memoirs…
Congrats! Certainly one heck of an interesting time to hold the position, to say the least. Can’t wait to see what’s in store for the future. (:
Well done mate! Hopefully they’ll carry on the transparency.