Is there a lack of digital health readiness in Ireland?

There has been a lot of speculation about the perceived lack of readiness, but to truly address the question it is vital that there is a clear understanding of what we are looking at when assessing digital health readiness.

By Clare Harney, Adjunct Faculty RCSI and Principal Consultant, Santegic

It is important to not just look at it purely from a technology perspective, but to consider the effective use and adoption of analytics, data access management and governance as well as the human factors involved in being digital health ready. The need to educate all parties involved in digital health is of paramount importance to understanding readiness, let alone delivering for the benefit of all.

Once a clear picture of the key elements needed to achieve readiness are understood, it is essential to define how we measure readiness across a health ecosystem and ensure any strategy encompasses the ability to deliver against these needs. As more and more countries embrace digital health and educate their work force as to how digital can support their role in healthcare delivery, there will inevitably be a greater ability to generate more indicators for analysis.

Ultimately this will allow us to understand more clearly the impact digital health readiness can have as a determinant of a population’s overall health. This understanding can feed into developing strategies, influencing policy and allowing for greater benefit analysis around digital health investment and education.

Positive change

When looking at Ireland’s digital health readiness, despite having a strategy and goals designed to deliver digital health readiness, ranking second in the 2022 world index of healthcare innovation, being a supplier of medical technology to 95 of the top 100 countries (by GDP) and having highest number of medical graduates per population among OECD countries, Ireland is still falling far short by most key readiness metrics.

This is evidenced by the OECD ranking Ireland as the worst of 22 countries for dataset governance and ability to access and link datasets in healthcare.

However, it’s not all bad news. The presence of a comprehensive and integrated strategy signals national co-ordination and a drive to improve digital health readiness. Ireland’s population comes in third across Europe for digital skills, meaning the ability is there to effect positive change once the conditions have been created. It is hoped that the impending adoption of the Health Information Bill 2023 will provide the catalyst for that change.

The Bill addresses some of the fundamental problems holding digital health back in Ireland. Among a raft of proposals, the Bill proposes framework for the collection, storage, sharing and use of patient data.

A crucial part of this is the proposed Individual Health Identifier – a key component in helping tie together the myriad of disparate healthcare records.

Digital mindset

In conclusion, Ireland has a lot of ground to make up in digital health, but the tide is turning. When it does turn, it will bring significant change – and with that will come new challenges and opportunities.

In all this change one thing is certain – healthcare professionals will need to upgrade their digital health skill, develop and enhance a digital mindset approach and equip themselves to take advantage of the impending transformation.