Tim James

Forum Chair 

Tim serves as chair of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Digital Nursing Forum and a Fellow of the British Computer Society (BCS).

He is an accomplished leader and clinical informaticist who drives digital strategy and transformation in healthcare.

With over 25 years of clinical experience with the NHS, he is passionate about leveraging digital technology to improve patient outcomes and mentor future leaders.

At Oracle Health, Tim leads a consulting practice of clinicians supporting strategic transformation and optimisation. He works in close partnership with healthcare leaders to drive executive alignment, strengthen governance, and deliver sustainable change — spanning programme delivery, product development, clinical risk management, and long-term adoption.

His focus remains firmly on improving clinical outcomes while advancing digital maturity across health systems.

Erica Diaz

Erica Diaz-Santos is a Senior Clinical Informatics Nurse and Advanced Clinical Practitioner at Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. With more than 15 years’ experience in acute medicine, same day emergency care and digital transformation, Erica brings a practical, front-line nursing perspective to the way digital tools are designed, introduced and used in everyday care.

Her work focuses on making digital health feel safer, clearer and more useful for the people who rely on it — patients, nurses, clinicians and wider care teams. Since joining the Digital Division, she has supported major Trust-wide programmes including Nexus Patient Record optimisation, Maxims EPR implementation, electronic observations, digital clinical noting, electronic ordering, and business continuity planning.

As a qualified Clinical Safety Officer, Erica is particularly interested in how digital systems can support safer decisions, reduce duplication and improve communication across services. She has contributed to clinical safety assurance, user acceptance testing, workflow redesign, stakeholder engagement, staff training and the development of practical guidance to help teams use digital tools with confidence.

Erica is passionate about clinically led digital transformation and believes technology works best when it is shaped by the people who use it every day. Through the RCN Digital Nursing Forum Steering Committee, she hopes to help amplify the nursing voice in digital health, support colleagues to build confidence with technology, and champion digital solutions that are safe, inclusive and meaningful for patients and staff.

Dawn Dowding

Dawn is a Professor in Clinical Decision Making, Division of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work, School of Health Sciences, University of Manchester, UK. Dawn is a nurse and health services researcher, with expertise in the field of health care decision-making and nursing informatics. Her particular research interests are the development and evaluation of decision support tools, and more recently the application of Health Information Technology for assisting decision making in practice.  

 

Before her position at Manchester, Dawn was Professor of Nursing at Columbia University School of Nursing and the Visiting Nurse Service of New York (which is the largest not-for-profit home care agency in the USA). Additional past appointments include Professor of Applied Health Research, University of Leeds UK and a Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy and Practice from 2009-2010, working at Kaiser Permanente, Oakland CA. Dawn is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.

Fiona Mills

Vice Chair

Fiona is an experienced Paediatric Nurse who began her digital nursing career in 2013 when clinically supporting the electronic medications administration and prescribing roll out at the Children's Hospital in Oxford. In 2017 Fiona became one of the first Nursing Informatics leads at Oxford University Hospitals as a permanent role. Since 2019 Fiona has been working as a Senior Divisional Nurse Informatics lead at Oxford university Hospitals, leading on digital processes and strategies across two divisions in the organisation.

Fiona is passionate about Digital Nursing as a speciality, actively supporting the development of Nursing colleagues to enhance and develop digital skills within the clinical health care setting and ensuring that patient safety is at the centre of everything we do. Essential to this is user centred, evidence-based design of digital systems which is a significant part of Fiona's remit in her current role.

Another aspect of Fiona's role is to support all clinical colleagues with digital aspects of healthcare, therefore she is involved in education and training for Nursing colleagues across the Organisation, not only looking at Electronic Patient record systems, but facilitating development of digital literacy for all colleagues which is an essential skillset for Nursing in digital health care settings. 

Fiona has been actively involved in numerous successful digital projects at Oxford university Hospitals, is a member of the Faculty of Clinical Informatics and currently chairs the Paediatric Specialist interest group, bringing together digital paediatric clinicians using the Oracle (Cerner) platform to learn and share best practice. 

Sam Neville

Sam is Chief Nursing Informatics Officer of the Mid and South Essex Foundation Trust. Sam started nurse training in 1992 at Orsett School of Nursing. In 2006 she completed a Certificate in Management Studies and followed this with a Masters in Leadership and Personal Development at Anglia Ruskin University in 2011. She has worked as a staff nurse within surgery, and followed the career path through to matron within different specialities, as well as a stint in risk management. Sam was previously Essex branch chair for approximately five years and remains an active steward within Essex since about 2004. She is also a member of the eHealth Forum Steering Committee.

Abi Swindail

 Abigail (Abi) is a Clinical Informatics Lead for Community Nursing and Children’s Services at Digital Health and Care Wales (DHCW).

She is a Registered Nurse and Health Visitor and brings extensive experience across community, children’s and urgent care services, alongside a strong track record in digital transformation and clinical leadership.

Since joining DHCW in 2021, Abi has worked at the forefront of digital change for community nursing and children’s services in Wales. She works across national programmes and multidisciplinary teams to help shape safer, smarter and more connected digital services, ensuring the needs of community nursing are represented within wider system design and delivery.

Abi’s professional background includes roles as a District Nurse, Prison Nurse, Health Visitor, and Health Manager for Vale Flying Start, as well as hospital experience in Trauma and Emergency Department nursing. Her career has been defined by a consistent focus on improving care through innovation, quality improvement and the thoughtful use of digital tools.

In 2024, Abi was awarded the title of Queen’s Nurse in recognition of her commitment to high standards of nursing practice, learning and leadership. She is also a Professional Member of BCS, an Advanced Practitioner with FEDIP, and a 2026 Digital Health Fellow with CHIME.

Abi is a passionate advocate for community nursing and for delivering care closer to home. She speaks and works across professional and national forums to champion clinically led digital transformation, strengthen the voice of community services, and support more effective, person-centred care across Wales.