Meeting 2

Minutes of the 2^nd Health Data Liaison Group (HDLG) Meeting

8^th November 2019 14:30am - 17:00pm

Attendance:

28 people attended the 2^nd HDLG meeting in the Department of Health offices in Lower Baggot Street on 8^th November 2019. A full list of those in attendance can be found at the end of this document.

Item 1

Introduction and Terms of Reference

Muiris O’Connor opened the meeting at 14:30am, welcomed members to this Health Data Liaison Group meeting.

Paul Morrin informed the Group that the HDLG is operating under the aegis of the Transparency Code. Activities of the Group; including presentations, minutes and attendance at meeting, will be conducted in an open and transparent way. A copy of the Code is available at the following link: https://www.lobbying.ie/media/5986/2015-08-06-transparency-code-eng.pdf

Item 2

Health information systems in other countries – Camille Coyle, Health Research Board

Camille presentation was a comparative study of Health information systems in four countries. The main research question was what approaches have been taken in Scotland, New Zealand, Denmark, and Estonia to ensure the fulfilment of key health information system functions?

The topic areas of interest here were: organisational structure, unique patient identifiers, data standards, data networks, electronic health records, data access for patients and e-prescriptions, data security, health workforce training and other initiatives like crowdsourcing (flutracking), the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

She talked about the HRB’s model of health information systems; showing the core structures needed, the important data sources, patient managements structures and big data and the important health system outcomes.

Item 3

Results of WHO assessment on Ireland’s health information system

– Ronan O’Kelly, Department of Health

Ronan discussed the results of the WHO assessment on Ireland’s health information system (HIS) which took place earlier in 2019. The assessment was conducted by the Information, Evidence, Research and Evaluation Division of the WHO and was led by Support tool to assess health information systems and develop and strengthen health information strategies. All main components of the HIS in Ireland and their mutual relations were evaluated to identify those areas and elements in the system that are currently functioning in a suboptimal way and hence require strengthening.

He talked about the strengths and weaknesses identified by the WHO as part of this assessment. As well as this, WHO recommendations were discussed under the heading short term, medium-term and long-term recommendations.

Item 4

Update on work developing health information system strategy for Ireland

– Muiris O’Connor, Department of Health

Muiris provided an update to the Group on work done to date as part of the Irish Health Information System Strategy. He discussed the vision for the Strategy, challenge panels events which took place in summer 2019, the establishment of a strategy steering group, the WHO report into the Irish HIS, HRB evidence brief into peer Health Information Systems and the draft of the Health Information Strategy including chapters and actions to be taken. It was noted that a copy of the strategy would be sent to this Group and that we will discuss the strategy / consultation at the next meeting.

Item 5

National node for European Research Infrastructure Consortium

– Alan Cahill, Department of Health

Alan discussed the Join Action on Health information (InfAct). He discussed the various work packages related to this; in particular, work package 7 working towards a sustainable structure for health information in Europe. This relates to the development of National Nodes in each country. A national node is defined as an organisational entity that functions as:

• A national liaison that brings together relevant national stakeholders in the country’s health information system in a systematic way
• A discussion and advisory forum in matters of health data and information both for national and international matters

It was proposed that this Group be the national node for this purpose as it meets many of the criteria. This suggestion was put to the group and a discussion was held. It was concluded that further input from key users of data and members of research community would need to be included in the Group. Therefore, membership may need to be expanded to include other key users of health data. This will be discussed at the next meeting of the Group in the discussion surrounding the Terms of Reference.

 Item 6

System of Health Accounts, statistics and future development

– Elaine O’Sullivan, CSO

Elaine presented on the System of Health Accounts (SHA) by giving an overview of SHA, discussing data sources & Collection, showing results from the April 2019 transmission, reviewing international comparisons and discussing future developments. It was suggested that getting data from wholesale pharmacies could be useful for the SHA in future.

Item 7

Healthcare expenditure statistics – current and future obligations

– Sinead Bracken, CSO & Ronan O’Kelly, Department of Health

Sinead presentation was related to Eurostat Health Regulations. She discussed the European Health Interview Survey wave 3 and the adhoc module in the Labour Force Survey (LFS) -   Accidents and other work-related Health problems. She also talked about the SILC health and children’s health module and introduced the Integrated European Social Statistics (IESS) health related variables.

Ronan concluded the presentations with a talk on International non-monetary health statistics – current & future reporting requirements. He discussed the OECD health data questionnaire and WHO health data questionnaire. As part of the future regulation for European Health statistics, he discussed Regulation (EC) No 1338 / 2008 related to statistics on healthcare expenditure and the development of a legal basis for collecting non-monetary health care data.

Note: All slides have been circulated to the Group.

Action items:

1. Update the Group’s Terms of Reference (ToR) to include the Transparency Code
2. Organise next meeting.

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