Glyn Hayes MBChB, DRCOG, CITP, FBCS

We, BCSHIF would like to submit the following citation in support of our proposal that Dr Glyn Hayes should be awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the British Computer Society, in light of his outstanding service to the Society in a number of key positions, over a prolonged period of time.

Dr Hayes is a recognised pioneer of UK Health Informatics and has been an active force since the late 70s.

Graduating from medical school in 1971, Dr Hayes was a principal in General Practice in Worcester for 25 years. He was one of the first GPs to use a computer in patient consultations (1978) and the first to try and develop a commercial system with consulting room capability (Roneborough Computing 1979). After the failure of this venture Dr Hayes did pioneering work on the use of computers for patient interviewing before returning to mainstream GP computing when his practice installed AAH Meditel System 5 in 1988.

He was particularly interested in how computers could be used in patient consultation without alienating the doctor and / or the patient, and preserving the doctor/patient relationship that many cherish as a key part of UK General Practice. A key element of this installation was the real - time nature of the system. Initially a systems engineer was based on site making changes Dr Hayes suggested to explore their efficacy.

His service to the BCS is shown in the following brief summary:

Dr Hayes became a founder member of the Primary Health Care Specialist Group of The British Computer Society (BCS) in the early 80s. He was seen as a force even then and became its most famous chair to date, serving from 1985 to 1990. His contribution was so marked, that Dr Hayes became its President after his term of office; a role he still holds.

Poor health forced Dr Hayes to give up full-time employment. However, despite facing physical difficulties that would have persuaded many to give up active involvement in outside activities Dr Hayes has continued to work to promote Health Informatics, particularly through his work as Chair of the BCSHIC/HIF. He was nominated as a Vice President and Chair of the BCS Forums Board and having just accepted this new challenge was overtaken by severe ill health. Following major heart surgery he has returned to help run BCSHIF as the past Chair.

Other significant items worthy of note are:

In 1993 he took the considerable risk of leaving his well established and successful GP practice to join AAH Meditel as Medical Director. In this role Dr Hayes helped to develop one of the leading commercial GP systems and built a strong clinical team many of whom now have leading roles in the National Programme for Information Technology in the NHS. (NPfIT). Dr Hayes helped AAH Meditel and then Torex achieve commercial success but always put professional issues and the greater good of primary care computing above personal commercial interests.

Dr Hayes is the undisputed Elder Statesman of Primary Care Informatics and his quiet counsel has been important not just to colleagues of longstanding but also to many new health informaticians who have taken up senior roles in both the BCS and NHS IT. He now works tirelessly in a voluntary capacity promoting professionalism within Health Informatics. A clear and obvious expression of this work is the development of UKCHIP.

Given Dr Hayes’ major contribution over many years to the Society and computing in general, we would urge you to give this submission serious consideration.