Gemma Acton
From programmer to an industry leader who is transforming the health sector, David Calvo, CIO at Northern Health, is passionate about the cloud security and big data.
Motivated by the knowledge, his role can and does make a difference to people’s lives. His big focus now is the digital transformation of the health service he works for. So is he a game changer? Let’s find out. I’m Gemma Acton. Welcome to Game Changers, in partnership with Logicalis, the architects of change.
David, thank you for joining us today. You have a really interesting background born in Venezuela, grew up in Spain, you live in Australia now. What have you learned from those three very distinct cultures?
David Calvo
That’s a very good question. Language. That’s probably the first thing. English was never in my peripheral vision. But then I decided to move to Australia and I had to learn English, which was, you know, challenging. Growing up, it was challenging as well to come from Venezuela, which was even though we speak the same language is a very different culture, moving into Spain. My biggest concern when I was six years old, which is when I moved there, was ‘were people going to understand what I’m what I’m saying? And my parents went, ‘Oh, it’s the same language, of course, they’re going to understand, we speak differently, because they have a different accent.’ And that was a massive concern for me. So yeah, and a big move to come to Australia.
Gemma Acton
It’s not often people who are living in Spain think I’m going to move to Australia, what drove that?
David Calvo
I went to uni in the US, went back to Spain, because my mother needed heart surgery, and I wanted to be with her. And what was supposed to take a couple months, it took two years. So after a while, I went into a company that was close from my parents’ house just for, you know, commodity. And I started working over there as a repeater start doing one thing and, and four years after, they continued working in there, they globalized the IT team, they opened up position in Melbourne, and they apply for it, and I got it.
Gemma Acton
And that was now what, almost 11 years ago, and you’ve never left.
Now, I love your university background, because from what I understand you did quite a bit of it. And then thought, hang on this course, is a bit behind. It’s not not moving forward into the new era. Tell us about what you what you felt.
David Calvo
So I started uni. I did two years in Spain. And after the second year, I was like, I don’t think this is for me. The program was very dated. And I was not finding anything interesting. So I stopped. And I stopped for seven years. And after seven years, I had that splinter in my heart, I was like I should I should finish uni at some point. So I went and checked the program again. And it was exactly the same that it was seven years before was like if it was dated before, imagine seven years in technologies. I was like, You know what, I don’t think I’m gonna do these in Spain. I’m gonna look elsewhere. And that’s why I ended up in the US during my bachelor’s degree over there.
Gemma Acton
Tell us about the course there that obviously had moved forward with the times. Yeah,
David Calvo
So the reason why I ended up going to the US because they had programs we say AI and robotics and automation, and you know, all these sort of things that back then we’re all starting. So it was all very new and very exciting. Funnily enough, I ended up in Hawaii, out of all places, because they were actually piloting a program there that contained all that. All those materials in there. I spent three years living in paradise because it was amazing.
Gemma Acton
Living in Hawaii and working on AI a lot of people’s dream at the moment. So you’ve been following the AI path for a long time now. Are you excited about the developments that are happening?
David Calvo
Absolutely. I think we need to be careful with the way we approach it to make sure that it’s secure. And, you know, we don’t we don’t do things that we shouldn’t by stopping that is not a solution for anything, or being scared about it. This is like when cars came out and you tell people No, don’t don’t drive cars because they’re dangerous. This is something you have to embrace it and you have to teach people how to use it properly.
Gemma Acton
There are a lot of technophobes out there. But one of the areas of technology where people are genuinely excited is about how technology can revolutionize health. And given we have an aging population around the world. There is so much potential you must see that every single day in your job.
Tell us about why you wanted to work at the intersection of technology and health.
David Calvo
Look for a while I’ve been wanting to find purpose on what I do for a living knew my previous company, I’d never found that. It’s only when I got interviewed by Northern Health. And during the interview process, I the same way they asked me questions, I asked them questions. And the way they answered the questions, it really got me. It was all about finding purpose for what you do, doing what is best for the patients, doing something meaningful for the community. And that really hooked me and it hasn’t died. I’ve been there for almost two and a half years now. And I love every day. It is crazy how good it feels to make people feel good with what you do.
Gemma Acton
You see potential there to do a lot more, I assume.
David Calvo
Yeah. A lot.
Gemma Acton
And what are some of the the goals you have in mind? Or what would you like to see your role evolve into?
David Calvo
Because Northern Health’s main businesses is the hospital, obviously, we teat patient information, as gold, basically, what I want to make sure is that we trade that information correctly, and that we secure it properly as well. We do have systems in place, but there’s always improvements that you can put in place. So my intention will be to take Northern Health to the next level around patient information.
Gemma Acton
Northern Health partners with Logicalis on different ventures. They do talk about themselves being enablers. Is that how you found the experience to be?
David Calvo
Absolutely, they do have not only on the technical side, but in the human side as well. The engagement has always been incredible.
Gemma Acton
Tell us how you see the role of a strong public health sector in an overall functioning society?
David Calvo
We bring good to the community, what we’re trying to do there is build a place where people feel safe, where when you feel sick, you know where you go, you know that you’re gonna get good attention, you know, that you’re gonna be looked after. Every single step that we take, technology wise or otherwise in the hospital is always having the patient at the center. And I love that. Because it’s not always the case, particularly in the private sector sector, which is where I’m coming from. Having that shift that shift to people focus. It’s really powerful.
Gemma Acton
It’s a very big job, you have CIO of Northern Health, tell us about your leadership style.
David Calvo
So look, I have a very open leadership, leadership style, my focus is to make sure that I am able to adjust the style that I have, depending on who I have in front of me. And I create an environment where people feel empowered, and safe. And this not only creates better engagement, but also creates a little cohort of people that really get along and it’s more about just what you do on your computer, you belong to a much larger thing than just that and creates this environmental world where it’s just relaxed, but professional at the same time. And where we offer career paths to people as well. So I get really engaged with the team to know what they want to do and you know where they want to grow their or your person, if there’s any option that we have to put that in front of them, then we’ll do that creates really good engagement.
Gemma Acton
I had two babies in the last two years through the public health system and had a fantastic experience. But one of the memories I’ll always have is just how busy people were there. How can technology improve that for the staff who are absolutely incredible, but work to the bone?
David Calvo
One of the biggest challenges we have is to keep up with everything. Because there’s so much growth, so much demand from the public as well, that it is really challenging. So we are looking at how to treat patients at home, for example, so they don’t have to come to the hospital anymore. We are looking at automating some of the administrative processes to save the time that you know, the people spent on inputting data and systems and all that stuff. We recently moved. Last year actually, we went live with EMR electronic medical record. So we move basically, from putting everything to paper to put it into a digital system. It was a massive change for the hospital. So all these little bits and pieces add up. And they all contribute to make sure that we provide what I mentioned before that better patient experience.
Gemma Acton
David, what’s your vision for the next five years, let’s say in the role and for where technology can help the health sector?
David Calvo
Patient information is key for us. My intention will be to put in place systems that make the security of our information more robust. And not only that, but also make us compliant with all the demands that we have for the Department of Health as well. To make sure that we tick all the boxes there, basically. So my intention will be to implement systems to control how we manage personal patient information, where it goes, where it stays and you know, it’s encrypted, all these sort of things that we have to make sure that we keep in line really tightly
Gemma Acton
A lot of important stakeholders to make happy. David, thank you so much for joining us today.
David Calvo
Thank you.
For more Game Changers, watch Logicalis Australia CEO Anthony Woodward’s interview, here.
