Leeds digital maternity colleague receives Chief Midwifery Officer award

The National Chief Midwifery Officer (CMO), Jules Gudgeon, has presented the CMO Silver award to Misbah Mahmood, Deputy Chief Midwifery Information Officer at Leeds Teaching Hospitals.

The CMO Silver award recognises midwives whose performance goes above and beyond their everyday role, demonstrating excellence in clinical practice, leadership in the development of services and consistently outstanding care recognised by patients and colleagues.

Joining Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust (LTHT) in 2014, Misbah was one of the Midwives who led LTHT’s digital transformation in maternity services. This involved the implementation of an end-to-end electronic patient record, secure online notes portal and self-referral service, supporting effective, safe, flexible on-going care and enabling new ways of working such as remote monitoring.

Misbah is passionate about mentoring and runs a programme to support, promote and develop colleagues. She also has considerable involvement in many local, regional, and national networks:

• The first elected midwifery member of the Digital Health CNIO advisory council · Chair of the Local Maternity Neonatal System Digital Midwives Group
• A member of the Digital Midwives Expert Reference Group · Florence Nightingale Digital Scholar, 2022. Misbah was also part of the 2023 Lamp procession at St Paul’s Cathedral.

Last year, Misbah was appointed as LTHT’s first Deputy Chief Midwifery Information Officer, a leadership role created to drive digital transformation. As well as a first in the Trust, this role was also the first in England, responding to the need to develop an industry leading approach to keep maternity at the forefront of digital transformation.

“Misbah is a true leader and a constant source of inspiration to her colleagues. She has a natural ability to capitalise on opportunities to digitise, and the transformational work Misbah co-led has seen us implement an industry-leading, patient-centred digital pathway for our maternity services.”

Becky Musgrave, Head of Midwifery, said: “We are delighted that Misbah has received this prestigious award and we are proud of all her achievements as the country’s first Deputy Chief Midwifery Information Officer. Misbah’s work has improved efficiency across our busy maternity service and her forward-thinking approach to digital innovation has also helped to inform quality improvement work to benefit our patients and staff.”

Jules presented the award to Misbah at this year’s Re:wired, recognising Misbah’s remarkable dedication to her work and constant advocacy for digital and midwifery.

Image: Deputy CCIO, Misbah Mahmood

Source: Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Staff Writer