Royal Papworth: Laying digital paths for healthcare’s future

“We all have a unique story to tell,” quips Andrew Raynes, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Cambridge-based Royal Papworth Hospital, one of the world’s top 100 medical institutions. 

Indeed, Raynes’ story is certainly unique. Starting his career as a hospital porter, Raynes’ introduction to the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) saw him “moving bodies to mortuaries, collecting posts, taking patients to X-ray and even driving ambulances.”

With a role in technology and information seemingly far off from these beginnings, Raynes soon became interested in a project the NHS undertook in the early 1990s, developing the first green screen technology implementations of a path system. 

Joining the development team, Raynes enjoyed being part of that team and working for a community hospital at the time. 

“I was helping to train and deploy the new technology,” he adds, “and I very much remember going through that early technological change. It was a nerve-racking time because NHS staff hadn’t used technology like this before.”

Nonetheless, this experience set the path for Raynes’ tech future in public service. From there he moved to different roles in IT, from past implementation to information governance.