health tech report
Realising the benefits of eHealth is not simply a technological endeavour, a new report into the social and ethical implications of eHealth policy in Ireland by the Oireachtas’ Library and Research Service states. Unlocking the potential of eHealth solutions requires “careful attention to the interdependencies between people, process and technology”, the report, written by Tim Jacquemard, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and Science Foundation Ireland researcherin-residence, states. Published in March 2021, the report says that eHealth solutions are “often complex, largescale projects with significant economic, social and ethical implications” and that “a failure to address these interdependencies can lead to undesirable outcomes, such as privacy breaches, wasted monies and project collapse”. Through its examination of Irish eHealth legislation, its implementation by governmental and non-governmental bodies and case studies such as the
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Covid Tracker App, the report identified 10 policy issues for eHealth in Ireland.
1.
Irish policy and debate consider eHealth to be a critical enabler of healthcare reform
Activity around eHealth in Ireland is constantly growing, and public debate “ascribe[s] eHealth the ability to transform the Irish healthcare into a more patient-centric, integrated and cost-effective system. The Programme for Government, Sláintecare, and the National Development Plan all make specific mention of eHealth, while the past 10 years have seen the partial rollout of a number of initiatives, such as the individual health identifier and ePrescribing. Other national projects
which will provide the basis of national eHealth in the decades to come, such as the national health record, are said to be “under development”.
2.
A failure to identify and address social and ethical implications can impact the success of eHealth technology
The report states that among the factors that determine the success of successful eHealth applications are “the social and ethical values of stakeholders, their organisations, and the cultural and political context”, meaning that the social, political and ethical values that are important in the Irish context must be factored in when
