Technology Office- Building the future

The Technology Office in the HSE is responsible for delivery of strategic investment, design, build and operational management of best-practice technology service to the HSE. The CTO’s core function is to deliver technology solutions that drive efficiencies in models of care to result in a better patient experience.

What does this mean?
It means Technology Office is responsible for the servers, storage, end user devices, network connectivity, network infrastructure, telecommunication infrastructure, telecommunications devices, telecommunications connectivity, Cloud services, eMail, identity and access management and emergency services
technologies. All this for the largest employer in Ireland, with the most distributed network of locations across the island of Ireland.

Some Key Facts
• The HSE network connects 6,000 locations across Ireland. We have 70,000+ end user devices, 48,000+ mobiles phones and 5000+ servers.
• The Storage (12PetaByte) in the HSE is equivalent to 240 million filing cabinets or 6,000 billion pages of printed text.
• The HSE mail servers process 2 million emails every day and manage 250,000 email addresses.
• Emergency Services have best in class technology and connectivity, enabling multi-disciplinary communications and engagement from the start of the patient   emergency journey.
• HSE is one of the largest Microsoft customers in Europe with an Azure Cloud platform delivering critical applications across healthcare, including many of the Covid applications delivered at pace during the crisis.

The Vision
Our vision is to ensure every technology decision will be patient centric, enhancing their journey through the Irish Healthcare system. We aim to provide a consistent connected experience for service users and staff. We believe “A solid foundation is key to a strong superstructure”.

There are 4 primary pillars of technology delivering this superstructure for health care services (see image below).

So where are we on this journey!
The HSE has best in class network and telecommunications infrastructure, with significant milestones passed in terms of operation and delivery.
We have enhanced capacity through government networks – GB speeds into Acute Hospitals, upgraded internet infrastructure and delivered significant legacy remediation across the estate.
The next sea change for the HSE is the Enterprise WLAN programme which is now very active and the new mobile framework which will set the bar for the delivery of mobile services in the HSE.

The model(s) for the delivery of compute and storage solutions on premise and in cloud in the HSE are best in class, with t-shirt size solutions which meet every
business requirement. The solution encompasses the latest technologies from our partners and ensure a standardisation of approach across the organisation and sees the HSE at the forefront of technology deployments in Ireland.

Where next for this?

You can expect to see major transformation in how we deliver these services – automation, self-service portal etc. So watch thisspace!
End-User Technology is one of the most impactful areas in any organisation, and there are massive opportunities here to transform the work lives of our staff, particularly clinical staff.

We now have a General Manager with responsibility for End User Technology - Kieran Herron, who will work with other technology office areas and staff across the HSE to determine the best fit for each persona. This will further our vision of a connected, consistent experience anyplace, anytime, anywhere. 

So, what can you expect?

You will see a merging of end user experiences across technologies (standard devices, tablet devices, mobile devices), you will see virtualisation of end user desktops, extensive mobile application enablement and the delivery of Windows 11 in an agile manner.

You always leave the best until last

Identity:
The foundation of all end user experience is identity. As the Rockshore Ad says, “We don’t care who you are, Where you're from, It’s all cause we love you” - well, maybe it should read “it’s all cause you are in HealthIRL and we can definitively identify you and, ensure you are digitally enabled”. Not quite as catchy but hey!
HealthIRL Migration hit a key milestone a month ago with over 50,000 accounts. It is the largest domain in the HSE, delivering secure services both on premise and cloud.

Where next?

Users will continue to be migrated, but you will see the deprecation of old domains as areas complete, so make sure you are not left behind. Worth mentioning there is a self-service option available – might suit you to check it out.

Our Cloud identity (which is HealthIRL) will leverage the capabilities in the cloud to enhance access controls. We will know who you are and where you are from and this information will enable decisions in terms of what (if any access) you can have. We will look to connect identities where appropriate to deliver a genuine single sign on experience, enhancing the end user experience.

Citizen Identity is another area where there will be a sea change in the HSE in 2024. There will be opportunities to leverage government solutions and our A2i team will ensure the linkage to IHI. This will be driven by the implementation of the patient app and will require collaboration across all of eHealth. The identity team(s) in the Technology Office will play a key role in the underlying technology decisions. Exciting times ahead

What does this mean for our staff and service users?
These are exciting times for the HSE and particularly exciting times for technology office, as we start to build on the foundations laid since our 2018 strategy. To a certain extent the technology strategy both delivered for, and benefitted from, the Covid and Cyber sagas, and many initiatives leapfrogged from design straight into implementation in response to the requirements of both crisis situations. The end result is, from a technology perspective, the HSE is well positioned to deliver digitally enabled, connected care. It also means the technology office in the HSE is a great place to work if you enjoy challenges, love technology, and want to make a real
difference.

For more information about the Chief Technology Office visit their webpage here.