Following the publication of the “eHealth strategy for Ireland (2013)”, the Department of Health has detailed a roadmap to facilitate the transition of health care provision in Ireland to a more patient centred model through the use of emerging ICT. The new delivery model will realise benefits in patient health and well being, as well as delivering efficiencies in resource utilisation.
The strategy document also highlights the potential of eHealth as an “economic driver of growth and development” through innovation and the provision of eHealth technologies and solutions by the private sector.
The “Knowledge and Information Strategy – Delivering the Benefits of eHealth in Ireland” published in May 2015, the HSE Chief Information Oficer (CIO) outlines (p.10) the governance and implementation plan for delivering the Irish eHealth strategy. The governance structure is described as including the “integral involvement of clinicians and leadership, so that the proposed solutions are defined with the practitioners, and alignment with integrated care pathways is assured” The document also encourages a “a strong role for clinical and operational leadership to help ensure that the priorities remain focused on the core mission of providing knowledge and information that underpins ongoing service priorities…”.
IPPOSI enjoys a strong relationship with the office of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The IPPOSI CEO Derick Mitchell is a member of the EHealth Ireland committee. Latest updates from this oversight committee are available here.
The two key areas of the eHealth Ireland strategy that IPPOSI has focused on are the Individual Health Identifiers, and Electronic Health Records.
You can find the Outcome Report and speaker videos arising from this event here.
The development and implementation of the ‘Individual Health Identifier’ (IHI) provides a single method of identification for each Irish citizen who is using, has used, or will use Irish health and social care services. It will also provide a method to bring together a single set of medical records for any individual, from different health systems. The ‘Health Identifier Bill’ which provides the legal framework around the IHI, was published in 2013, and the subsequent Health Identifiers Act was signed into law in July 2014.
IPPOSI & the IHI
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- In October 2015, IPPOSI hosted a consultation with members about the draft Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) for Individual Health Identifier numbers in Ireland. The relevant document arising from this consultation is:
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are a cornerstone of the eHealth Strategy. Learn more about the introduction of EHRs into Ireland on the eHealth Ireland website here.
Health Informatics Society of Ireland (HISI) 2016
IPPOSI organised a patient-led workshop on electronic health records at the HISI Annual Conference for 2016 on November 16th. The workshop title was ‘In Electronic Health Records we Trust?’ and you can read the Outcome Report arising from the workshop here. For more information, and to see the presentations delivered at the workshop, go here.
‘Personas’ in eHealth
IPPOSI met with the HSE team developing a range of ‘personas’ that will help to illustrate the value and scope of electronic health records, when they are introduced. This HSE team invited the IPPOSI members attending the HISI conference in 2016, and 20 further IPPOSI members, to attend a workshop around the eHR personas that took place in January 2017. You can find out more about the eHR personas here.
Tweetchat
To promote debate and discussion on the development of EHRs in Ireland, IPPOSI CEO Derick Mitchell co-hosted a session of the #irishmed tweet chat with Mr Richard Corbridge (HSE Chief Information Officer – @R1chardatron) and Dr Dmitri Wall (Irish Skin Foundation – @DmitriWall) on the topic of ‘Electronic Health Records in Ireland’. 209 participants generated generated 1,721 tweets (and no small amount of enthusiasm) that resulted in almost five million impressions.
#irishmed is a live, twitter-driven event which takes place every Wednesday at 10 pm Irish time on all things relating to Irish medicine, north and south. The regular host of this popular 1-hour forum is Liam Farrell, @drlfarrell, a GP and writer. For people with Twitter accounts, to join the tweet chat, all you have to do is log into your Twitter account and search for the hashtag #Irishmed. Tweets are welcome from everyone, health care professionals, patients, carers; overseas comments are also welcome.
