Five Minutes With… A Data Architect
Working at Team BCHC for nine years, Jonathan Ko has been involved in many impressive projects that have had a huge impact on the population of Birmingham and beyond.
As a Data Architect, Jonathan works to develop and implement web/mobile/data and apps to help support our colleagues and in turn, our patients.
Over the years, Jonathan has supported countless people across the patch through digital enhancements, most notably helping over 30,000 children across Birmingham get their flu vaccinations administered quicker.
You can read all about his work and more about what a Data Architect does in the following Five Minutes With feature.
Hi Jonathan, please could you explain what a Data Architect does?
As a Data Architect, I am responsible for development and implementation of web, mobile and data applications in a wide spectrum of projects to reduce paperwork, improve data reports and reduce errors. I’m also responsible for testing data and I investigate issues on applications to support the wider team.
How does data improve health outcomes for people?
You can tell a lot about data, it can spot patterns, predict trends or even save lives depending on how you interpret it. Having accurate data also improves speed and reliability to procedures, therefore saving time and reducing workload.
Are your team working on any exciting projects at the moment?
We are indeed. The most recent piece of work I have been involved in is our Reasonable Adjustments (RA) Portal, a project that I have been developing with the RA staff to support our disabled colleagues across the Trust. More information on how we are helping those with disabilities with their reasonable adjustments can be found on our website .
Can you tell us a career highlight of yours?
Last year, I created an offline data recording system that accurately documented the uptake of children getting their injections at school. The portal, aptly named the School Age Immunisation Service (SAIS) portal , gave our school-age immunisation nurses the ability to upload their vaccination records offline when on their visits to schools - without internet access.
Over 50,000 parental e-consent forms were signed, and 37,000 vaccinations were recorded 10 months after the system was launched in January 2024.
In the first two months of the autumn school term, consent for the flu vaccine was recorded digitally for 30,000 children and 16,000 vaccinations had been administered.
I was so pleased to learn that thanks to the new way of recording, tens of thousands of vaccinations were administered on the basis of consent forms signed through the portal. Speeding up the traditional printed forms that often caused delays.
I was really proud of this achievement as it meant that we were able to accurately measure how we are helping our communities across the patch. I also won a BCHC Improving 2gether Quality Improvement Award for my work and I was recognised at the NDL Community Awards .
Tell us something that people might not know about you
Princess Diana once visited my primary school (Longwill School). I was lucky enough to be selected to meet her.
What do you like most about working for the NHS?
I am a very motivated person and love working on new projects to help others. I want to help improve the community’s health and support my colleagues by providing quality digital enhancements.
When people think of NHS, they might think of clinical roles such as doctors, nurses and GPs. Behind the scenes however, there are colleagues like me that work hard to digitally transform ways of working to help make all NHS jobs that bit easier and more efficient. That in turn helps patients like the 37,000 children I supported with the School Age Immunisation Service (SAIS) portal.
Describe yourself in a few words
Patient, hardworking, smiling.
If you are interested in a career in the NHS, take a look at the vacancies page on our website . The NHS has more than 350 different careers available and one of those careers could be right for you.