Lesley Holdsworth wins award for pioneering digital leadership in Scotland

^{From left: Robbie Pearson, chief executive of Healthcare Improvement Scotland,  Lesley Holdsworth, Scottish government clinical lead for digital health and care and Stephen Jardine, journalist and broadcaster, who presented the awards}

Dr Holdsworth is Scottish government clinical lead for digital health and care, representing allied health professionals (AHPs), nurses and midwives.

She received the Scottish Digital Impact of the Year Award in February at the 1st Annual Scottish Digital Health and Care Awards, in partnership with the Scottish Government.

The award was open to all health professionals, and Dr Holdsworth said she was ‘pleasantly surprised’ to receive the award, considering she was up against ‘a lot of influential medics’.

‘For me it’s recognition that physios and AHPs are making a significant contribution to the digital agenda. The judging panel obviously recognised that AHPs are doing something right’, she said.

In her role, Dr Holdsworth has established a national network of AHPs, nurses and midwives interested in digital solutions in healthcare, along with developing national leadership programmes around the digital agenda.

Physios, in particular, are playing a prominent role in driving the digital agenda in Scotland, she said.

‘We have an executive steering group and physios form the backbone of this group. We also now have 19 physios working at health board level who are influencing strategic direction by looking at how we can improve services through digital solutions.’

She added that it is important that AHPs have a strong voice in the digital agenda ‘to reflect the reality of service delivery and what’s right for patients’.