HomeAuthor InterviewsHenry Mulder is the author of Transforming Healthcare with DevOps, we got...

Henry Mulder is the author of Transforming Healthcare with DevOps, we got the chance to sit down and find out more about his experience of writing with Packt.

Q: What are your specialist tech areas?

Henry: I’ve started way back on real time digital processing used in complex defense systems. This evolved into requirements management as my main tech focus to make sure that IT is fit for purpose. Now especially to make it suitable for healthcare.

Q: How did you become an author for Packt? Tell us about your journey. What was your motivation for writing this book?

Henry: Jeroen Mulder was already an author for Packt on several books on DevOps and governance. He introduced me to Packt. We got the idea for the book as we noticed from several perspectives in work and as a private person that the way technology was used in healthcare was very often not successful. DevOps and IT governance seemed applied to healthcare on a wrong footing. Lacking the real understanding. Promises made too big, followed by disappointments. We felt we needed to find out why and tell the world about it.

Q: What kind of research did you do, and how long did you spend researching before beginning the book?

Henry: The journey actually started in 2001 with R&D on tele-rehabilitation which continued later with gamification of rehabilitation and caregiver mediated exercises via an iPad. Further experience followed with many implementation projects, most recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This gave some insights in what is needed to successfully adopt technology in networked care. Motivation was transformed in looking for answers at the start of the pandemic in 2020. After one year we were ready to propose Packt our idea.

Q: Did you face any challenges during the writing process? How did you overcome them?

Henry: Actually, starting as a co-author was very helpful relying on Jeroen’s experience. This paved the way for the book. The challenge was to align the creative process of iterations with the review cycle planning. But this was very flexible supported by the Packt team and made a better book.

Q: What’s your take on the technologies discussed in the book? Where do you see these technologies heading in the future?

Henry: The main issue we address in the book is that technology has to fit the needs of healthcare. It’s making sure that these needs are understood to guide where the technologies are headed in the future.

Q: Why should readers choose this book over others already on the market? How would you differentiate your book from its competition?

Henry: I saw that many books are approaching healthcare technology from a technology push. However almost none on really understanding the needs and how to create the dialog with the real users. Thats why we embarked to write a book how to feed properly the DevOps processes.

Q: What are the key takeaways you want readers to come away with from the book?

Henry: As mentioned before the real take away is that technology developers have to invest in understanding the actual needs of the complex healthcare systems and build communities with the right knowledge prior to develop technology.

Q. Do you have a blog that readers can follow?

Henry: Oh yes, that’s on www.AptaVivar.net with AptaVivar meaning ‘suitable for life’. The website is about making technology suitable for life!

Q. What advice would you give to readers learning tech? Do you have any top tips?

Henry: I can be short on this this one. Listen and understand the stories from the users of the technology that you make or vice versa as a user tell your story and make sure that you are understood well by the developers. The book we have written is an attempt to apply the knowledge learned from the vast Packt library in healthcare.

Q. What are your favorite tech journals? How do you keep yourself up to date on tech?

Henry: My favorite is Tweakers.net a Dutch site covering everything tech, but also Futurism.com and the SingularityHub.com are visited on a daily basis by me.

Q. Can you share any blogs, websites and forums to help readers gain a holistic view of the tech they are learning?

Henry: There are many, but I would recommend the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge or SEBoK to get a lot of information on the application of complex technology. On healthcare have a look on the website of the World Healthcare Organization WHO as a starting point.

Q. How would you describe your author’s journey with Packt? Would you recommend Packt to aspiring authors?

Henry: The support of Packt was and is very professional. As an author you can really focus on the content, all other things are taken care of. So if you have an idea please follow their lead and it will bring you to the book you want to publish.

Q. What is that one writing tip that you found most crucial and would like to share with aspiring authors?

Henry: Take your time and rewrite as often as needed. It’s about quality!

Q. Would you like to share your social handles? If so, please share.

Henry: https://www.linkedin.com/in/henrymulder/

You can find Henry’s book on Amazon by following this link: Please click here

Transforming Healthcare with DevOpsAvailable on Amazon.com