Be the butterfly: A people-focused approach to digital transformation

AI can make healthcare transformation faster. But faster isn’t always better.

As healthcare organisations accelerate their digital transformation, there’s a growing temptation to automate, standardise and move straight to the build phase. But often, the most valuable approach is to slow down and focus on what matters most: improving how people work, and keeping patients safe. That can mean doing work for whose impact we may never see for ourselves.

The butterfly effect

I call this being the butterfly. A butterfly never gets to see its own wings; it’s other people who see them and benefit from them. I think transformation can work the same way. We don’t always need to be the ones who see the benefit of the change; sometimes our job is to create the conditions for others to thrive.

I’m a consultant in EPR Transformation at Nordic Europe and a registered nurse in the UK, with more than 36 years of nursing experience. People often ask how the two roles fit together. My answer is simple: they are the same thing.

Whether I’m working on the frontline or transforming healthcare digitally, I’ve always been guided by two questions: Will this make people’s lives easier? And will it make our patients safer?

Putting people at the heart of change

That principle shapes how I work today. Take nursing documentation; When healthcare organisations have multiple sites, documentation and processes can evolve differently over time. Standardising them is often part of a digital transformation programme.

My approach is to put frontline nurses at the centre of that process. They do the work, they understand the challenges and they know what good looks like. So I empower them to help standardise and redesign their own documentation and workflows.

Could I do this faster by analysing the documentation myself, using AI to identify standards and moving straight to the build? Absolutely. But I would miss something important: the expertise of the people who use the system every day.

The same principle applies to my 1:1 parallel documentation and benefits realisation work. I follow a patient through their surgical or procedural pathway, mirroring the work of the staff involved. I measure how long processes take, how easily information moves between teams and where there may be inefficiencies or safety risks.

I then repeat those processes in real time, in the future-state EPR. The aim isn’t simply to prove that the new system works. It is to understand whether it actually makes work easier, improves communication and supports safer patient care.

And there is another benefit. By experiencing the future workflow before go-live, staff can see what is changing, identify concerns and feel more confident about the transition. Could I be doing less work? Yes. Could I be working faster? Probably. But that’s not my measure of success.

Our wings help others take flight

If a nurse finds their job easier, if a team can communicate more effectively, or if a patient is safer because of a change I’ve helped make, that’s success. I’m grateful that Nordic supports me in working this way, even when the benefits aren’t always immediately visible. The work I do may not always be the work that gets noticed, but that doesn’t make it any less valuable.

And that’s exactly the point of being the butterfly. We don’t always need to see the impact of the change ourselves; we just need to know that what we have done has made things better for someone else.

So, as we embrace AI and look for ever-faster ways to transform healthcare, let’s remember to slow down when it matters. Ask who will benefit. Ask whether it makes work easier, and above all, ask whether it makes patients safer.