As the digitalisation of healthcare gets underway, Ireland has the opportunity to move from being well behind its peers to – if it gets things right – a leader in the area.
Despite Ireland’s slow start in the area there is now a clear path to change, and, according to Orla Cafferty, chief executive of Datascan Document Services, the signs are that the pace of digitalisation of healthcare was set to increase.
“With the Programme for Government we now have a minister for digitisation, which has always been something of an add-on in the past. In fact, [as minister for health] Stephen Donnelly was very focused on it, but now Jack Chambers will be able to give it his full attention,” she said.
Crucially, there is now an opportunity for Irish businesses to make significant contributions to the needed digital transformation of public services, including healthcare. Indeed, arguably the most compelling aspect of this transformation is the potential for local Irish businesses: whereas traditionally, such large-scale digital projects have been the domain of multinational corporations, there is now an active encouragement to work with local firms.
“The problem [before] has been they are only able to target huge multinationals but this one will be encouraging interaction with local SMEs,” Cafferty said.
“We’re hoping that we can be a small part, helping to get the legacy data into the system.”
The HSE app, launched last month, represents an initial step. Future releases planned for 2025 will enable users to access hospital appointments, check referrals, and receive self-care information.
“The app is currently basic,” Cafferty said, “but it’s a significant first step. Right now, users can access their basic details, with potential for comprehensive clinical record access in the future.”
Indeed, future planned releases over 2025 will allow users to access public hospital and screening appointments, check referrals and waiting time statuses, receive additional self-care information, and access support services including smoking cessation and chronic disease management.
Nevertheless, substantial challenges remain. Many Irish hospitals are only partially digitalised, with inter-hospital data sharing proving difficult. Central to correcting this is a shared care record (SCR), plans for which were formalised with the 2024 publication of “Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030” by the Department of Health.
There are also international examples that can be followed, Cafferty said.
“If you look at Brazil, there anyone can log in to their own account and see their entire healthcare history.”
Achieving this in Ireland should certainly be possible, and the Health Information Bill currently before Dáil Éireann promises to address these issues by mandating digital health records and introducing a unique patient identifier.
“The momentum will continue due to the Health Information Bill, which mandates a digital health record and unique patient ID. It also mandates sharing between hospitals and also that people have access to their own data.”
Of course, cultural resistance to things that seem even remotely like an identity card have likely played a role in the slow rollout of digital services.
“In Ireland we never had that unique patient identifier, and that is a real problem,” she said.
Today, however, progress has been made, and the country stands to benefit from it, Cafferty said.
“We really need to see these programmes moving forward. We ourselves [at Datascan] are hoping to go into a hospital very soon,” she said.
Datascan’s project is simple: firstly, to put an end to the creation of data stored on paper. Secondly, it will assist with the digitalisation of key historical data for certain patients.
This targeted strategy not only reduces the volume of data requiring digitalisation but also maximises potential clinical outcomes by focusing on patients who will benefit most.
“They want, first of all, to ensure their legacy data doesn’t get any bigger. Then, you can take someone who has a chronic condition, because they are frequent visitors, someone who has a life-limiting condition, and you go back and scan all of their records. If I broke my leg when I was 12, that is not really relevant any more, but it is important that someone who has chronic conditions has their records available to clinicians,” Cafferty said.
“You pick cohorts who most need the data. It doesn’t have to be a blunt instrument – it can even be specific clinics – and then, from there, you have a ‘this day forward’ policy with every patient, every appointment, every test, every operation,” she said.