Ireland’s minister for health Stephen Donnelly has announced the establishment of an online health taskforce with the aim of developing a public health response to the harms caused to children and young people by certain online activities.
The taskforce has reportedly been set up “in recognition of a growing body of evidence” around the link between online activities and physical and mental health harms such as anxiety, sleep deprivation and self-harm.
Taking into consideration social, mental, physical and sexual harms, the taskforce is to recommend strategic recommendations in response which may take the form of national guidelines, regulations, awareness campaigns or other supports.
In other news from Ireland, the HSE’s National Cancer Control Programme has this week launched a community cancer nursing e-learning programme, designed to help cancer patients receive care in the community rather than in hospital.
The purpose of the programme is to ensure that community-based nurses are equipped with the knowledge and skills to care for patients at any stage of their cancer journey, with clinical nurse manager Ann Marie O’Looney stating that the elearning programme will be “hugely beneficial” for staff and patients in helping to “provide the right care, in the right place, at the right time”.
Also from Ireland
Earlier this week, HTN explored HSE’s new Digital Health Roadmap, which sets out a vision to create better health outcomes through a digitally enabled environment around six core principles: the patient as an empowered partner; workforce and workplace; digitally enabled and connected care; data-driven services; digital health ecosystem and innovation; and secure foundations and digital enablers.
In July, we highlighted the publication of Ireland’s Health Information Bill 2024, designed to provide patients with increased access to their own information and providing a “clear legal basis” to establish a Digital Health Record across the country.
We previously looked into Ireland’s digital health framework for 2024; and we noted Health Innovation Hub Ireland’s announcement of 11 winners for the first Irish FemTech call to industry.
In addition, HTN examined HSE’s national telehealth roadmap for 2024-2027, which shares a strategic plan for addressing the challenges and promoting the adoption of telehealth solutions, and outlines “the key building blocks for digital healthcare transformation”.
And we interviewed Aislinn Gannon, general manager for digital health at HSE, on her experience with digital health programmes, and her perspectives on the future of tech in health.
