Meeting 1

Minutes of the 1^st Health Data Liaison Group (HDLG) Meeting

8^th March 2019 - 10:30am-13:00pm

Attendance:

39 people attended the 1^st HDLG meeting in the Department of Health offices in Lower Baggot Street on 8^th March 2019. A full list of those in attendance can be found at the end of this document.

Item 1

Muiris O’Connor, Assistant Secretary General in the Department of Health opened the meeting at 10:30am, welcomed members to this new Health Data Group.

Item 2

Paul Morrin, Assistant Director General of the CSO Statistical Co-ordination Unit outlined the agenda for the meeting and read through the Group’s Terms of Reference (ToR). It was noted that the Group will meet at least twice a year and future agenda items are open for discussion to the Group’s members. No changes were suggested to the ToR; however, Paul referred to the ToR as a living document.

Item 3

“National Health Information System Strategy for the Irish Health Service” – Muiris O’Connor, Department of Health

Muiris gave a summary of the background and context for a health information system strategy for the Irish Health sector. A high-level objective of such a strategy would be “…improving the care people receive, their outcomes, and the health status of the population by ensuring high quality health information is available to health and social care providers, researchers and policy makers.”  A timeline and milestones were outlined for this strategy, including a World Health Organisation (WHO) assessment and stakeholder engagement. The aim is to publish a draft Strategy by the end of the year.

• Other points:
  • The WHO will be doing an assessment in March 2019. They will be visiting for two days. 

Item 4

“Health Statistics” – Sinead Bracken, CSO

Sinead presented on previous and current CSO releases/publications in relation to Health Statistics. She also explained how the CSO utilises various data sources to provide statistics on Health in Ireland. She discussed the results from the Wellbeing of the Nation 2017 publication, the Census, the System of Health Accounts and the Irish Health Survey (IHIS).

Item 5

“Building the National Data Infrastructure Through Partnerships” –

Kieran Culhane, CSO

Kieran discussed the concept of working towards a National Data Infrastructure (NDI) through improving the coverage and usage of key permanent official identifiers i.e. PPSNs, Unique Business Identifiers and Eircode. Examples of different analyses using linked administrative data along with health data were shown. One such statistical analysis looks at incomes and social welfare payments of those individuals on medical cards and GP visit cards, using data from the Primary Care Reimbursement Service (PCRS); P35, F11 data from Revenue and data from the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection (DEASP). Another project in the CSO, looked at the Prevalence of Epilepsy in Ireland. This project was completed through a collaboration between University College Dublin (UCD) and the CSO.

Other Points: It was noted that more detailed analysis from the Health and Children’s Health Module of the Survey of Income and Living Conditions (SILC) 2017 will be released later this year.      

Item 6

“Importance of Data and Gaps in Health Data in Ireland” – Dr. Brendan Walsh, ESRI

Dr. Brendan Walsh shared his expertise with the Group in relation to (1) the importance of the Individual Health Identifier; (2) data gaps in Utilisation data in Ireland, with an example from private health care; (3) International Comparisons and Data Difficulties; and, (4) Data and Policy Evaluation. He also discussed the importance of accurate data in terms of a key measure of resource use example: inpatient length of stay.

Action items:

1. Circulate presentation slides from meeting to all members.
2. Organise next meeting.

1^st HDLG Attendance List, 8^th March 2019