"We have hospital staff throughout the country under extreme pressure due to overcrowding"

What's your name?

Diane Nevin

What position do you hold?

I am a board member of eHealth Ireland and also lecture in Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Global Digital Marketing, Innovation and New Enterprise Development with the Galway Business School.

How long have you held the position?

I have been on the eHealth Ireland board from when it was first established in 2015 and lecturing with the Galway Business School since 2016.

What are your day to day responsibilities?

My responsibilities as a eHealth board member is to discuss, analyse, guide and support all projects that eHealth Ireland are developing and implementing within eHealth Ireland’s strategy and information plans.

My responsibilities as a lecturer with Galway Business School is to deliver dynamic education programmes with innovative content that delivers the highest quality of learning to all our students.

What is your professional background?

I have over 15 years’ senior management experience in sales, marketing, operational strategies and technical project management.

I also have extensive experience in dealing with Irish & EU start-ups, analytics, digital platforms and eHealth software.

Tell us something very few people know about you?

I have a 2ndbrown belt in Karate!

What challenges do you see for the healthcare sector in Ireland?

As a healthcare system we have unfortunately many challenges.

We have hospital staff throughout the country under extreme pressure due to overcrowding. As a result, we have patients experiencing long waiting periods and longer waiting lists.

The challenge is that our healthcare system does not have the current capacity to deal with our growing and ageing population. Subsequently, the Department of Health has commenced a nation “bed” capacity review to inform future capital investment in our health services.

Where would you like to see the health service in 10 years’ time?

I would like to see our healthcare services be confirmed in terms of its capacity to match our growing needs and population demands.

I am very passionate about seeing our health services implement eHealth technology to enhance patients’ lives and patient engagement.

I am honoured to be a board member of eHealth Ireland and the work that has been done to-date. I am very excited about the national Electronic Health Record (EHR) and its key capability to delivery future healthcare. Technology is moving at such a fast pace and it provides an excellent opportunity for clinicians and patients to come together and build required engagement in real time.

The Maternal and Newborn Clinical Management System (MN-CMS) has been a great success from when it was first launched in Cork University Maternity Hospital in December 2016. The (MN-CMS) project is the design and implementation of an Electronic Health Record (EHR) for all women and babies in maternity services in Ireland.

I believe our healthcare services looks brighter from the development and implementation of eHealth Ireland current projects and future objectives

Diane Nevin is appearing at The 14th National Health Summit. The agenda and further details for this important national event, at Croke Park on February 8th, is available at

healthsummit.ie