An annual report from Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) has shared health tech updates including outcomes from initiatives such as virtual wards, cyber security and the national EHR programme.
Following on from the publication of its Digital Health Strategic Implementation Roadmap in July 2024, HSE sets out progress on the national electronic health record programme, with an interim steering group having held its first meeting in June, and work continuing to develop the preliminary business case. “Procurement and delivery of a national EHR is fundamental to the seamless provision of healthcare across Ireland,” the executive states. A contract has been awarded for the national shared care record, and implementation has begun with initial region clinical user onboarding underway.
Migration to HealthIRL, a programme moving user accounts, devices, and mailboxes from eight legacy regional domains to a single domain, was completed in the community, according to HSE. “The programme has put the HSE in an advantageous position of having a single identity across our network, which is modern, secure, cloud enabled and a foundational building block of how we deliver technology solutions,” it explains.
On cyber security, HSE highlights that the chief information security office has been established to focus on increasing cyber maturity, and a permanent CISO was appointed in 2024. Work has also continued on the findings from the post-incident review of the 2021 Conti cyber attack on HSE, which resulted in healthcare professionals losing access to all HSE-provided IT systems, and “significant disruption” with “real and immediate consequences for the thousands of people who require health services every day”.
The emphasis has since been on improving security and resilience of critical national infrastructure, and improving awareness of cyber security threats across the organisation, including through cyber incident response workshops. “In addition to cyber defence, a key focus is on investing in modernisation of the technology estate to mitigate the business and cyber risks of hosting legacy technology,” HSE states. A range of cyber security products have now been implemented, with controls in place for vulnerability management, intrusion detection, account monitoring, access control and application software security.
Systems and data are backed up and stored off site, physically or digitally, whilst mandatory cyber security awareness training includes simulated phishing campaigns. An email filtering and quarantining system is now in place. HSE is working on preparations for NIS2 compliance, a security response centre has been established, and phase one of its application modernisations programme is now complete.
On emerging technologies, HSE points to its AI and Automation Centre of Excellence, established in 2024 with a focus on deploying AI in areas such as stroke identification, radiology, cardiology and UEC avoidance. To date, it records that more than 800,000 hours have been released and 7.5 million transactions have been processed using robotic process automation, with a priority focus on waiting lists, improvements in processing times, and clinical productivity. Moving forward, an AI strategy and associated implementation framework is being developed.
HSE highlights progress on virtual wards, with two 25-bed virtual wards for cardiology and respiratory patients introduced at St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin and University Hospital Limerick. Between July and December, a total of 508 patients were onboarded, saving an estimated 3,307 bed days. Working alongside a voluntary partner, HSE has also been focusing on supporting older people through coordinated support, visitation, community support, and “age-friendly housing technology”.
Results from its Supporting Multimorbidity Self-Care through Integration, Learning and eHealth (SMILE2) project, “a virtual case management service for those with multimorbidity and high need”, are also shared, with data indicating that patients who had used SMILE2 for six months had a 55 percent reduction in ED visits, a 75 percent reduction in hospital bed nights used, and an 81 percent reduction in urgent GP visits. A heart virtual clinic model is also being used to allow for virtual advisory consultations between consultants and GPs, with the intention of reducing ED attendance and hospital referrals.
A contract for the discovery phase of Community Connect was signed in January 2025, a single set of agreed data points is set to be implemented into a set of dashboards to be viewed nationally, regionally, or locally, and a single national database of imaging for all acute sites is to be developed, with integration for Agfa sites in acute and community. On medical labs, HSE reports that implementation across multiple hospitals with GP ordering is expected to deliver major change over the coming 12 months, and procurement has been started for digital pathology. Five hospitals are now live with single sign-on for multiple applications, with a target completion date of 2027.
Wider trend: Digital transformation in Ireland
Ireland’s minister for health, Stephen Donnelly, has published the 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 Ireland. Additionally, the bill sets out a “duty to share” health information for patient care and treatment, greater protections around health information for primary use, and greater ease for the Health Service Executive to obtain health information for public-interest purposes.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) Health App was launched earlier this year, offering patients a “digital front door” to health services. The public launch has been welcomed by the Minister for Health as “an exciting milestone” in the journey to digitise patient health records and to “make it easier for everyone to navigate the health service”. The first phase introduces functionality including the ability to view maternity service appointments, to create and carry a “digital list of self-declared medications” and medications received through the Drugs Payment Scheme or Medical Card Scheme, to store European Health Insurance Card information, and to access flu and COVID-19 vaccination records.
Health Innovation Hub Ireland (HIHI) announced eleven winners for its first Irish FemTech call to industry, which sought innovations addressing issues in women’s health with the 11 winners including innovators with solutions such as apps to track symptoms, wearable solutions, and a chatbot for answers to questions on menopause. From a total of thirty-seven applicants, the eleven winners were selected “based on novelty, the significance of the problem addressed, market and potential for future investment”. Of these, five had products which are considered “deep tech”, based on “tangible engineering innovation or scientific advances and discoveries applied for the first time as a product”.
