Digital for Care 2030: Making Strides

September saw a huge boost of interest in Digital for Care 2030 through key events and engagements. One such event was the Integrated Care Conference in the Convention Centre on September 5th, 2024, hosting over 1000 delegates combined in person and virtually, centred on the theme of ‘access and integration’.

Damien McCallion, CTTO, HSE Technology and Transformation, speaking to Digital for Care 2030, highlighted the digital health transformative strides being made and those upcoming for our health services – the shift from acute to prevention and reducing health inequalities. He referenced particularly the current digital landscape in Ireland, the importance of connecting systems, consistent data, consistent innovation and the potential of AI.

Damien also spoke to the vision of the Department of Health’s Framework that will be implemented under Digital for Care 2030 and how this will support the delivery of an Electronic Health Record and Shared Care Record allowing a single point of access to health information for patients and staff.

The Digital for Care 2030 session was closed with an insightful presentation from Neil O’Hare around AI and its potential and capabilities. Full details can be found here showcasing session recordings and poster competition presentations.

Valuable Findings HIQA Survey

HIQA published the results on September 4th, 2024, of a National Engagement on Digital Health and Social Care, in partnership with the Department of Health and the HSE. Over 2,000 members of the public took part in a survey aligned to a professional survey with 1,020 healthcare professionals and varying focus groups.

The aim was to understand the opinions and approach of both the Irish public and healthcare professionals around accessing online health records and services digitally.

The results of the survey, while acknowledging the challenges around digital literacy and current digital infrastructures it demonstrated that people primarily want:

• To see education, training and supports rolled out with any online health system.

• Assurances regarding data security

The findings from the survey are both hugely positive and hugely valuable feeding directly into the work of our programmes and will help inform developments in digital health being progressed under Digital for Care 2030. Full details can be found here.

We’d like to hear from you:

Over the next number of months, while we’ll be focusing on building the profile of key programmes, we need support from all our Technology and Transformation staff to help build upon the profiles of your ongoing work. Full details on how to do this will be made available soon on ehealthireland.ie.

For any queries, please reach out to our team on digitalforcare@hse.ie.

Images featured in this article were taken from the HSE Integrated Healthcare: Advancing Health Service Reform conference gallery.