Interview published by agendaNi
Harmonious data exchange across healthcare systems should unify “disparate data” from “diagnostic systems, public health records, laboratories, pharmacies, and hospitals”, whilst being verified between each party.
The healthcare sector is embracing digital systems and patient portals to make appointments, store data and inform patients about their medical journeys, but there is a lack of data interoperability – data which is easily available between the relevant departments – replaced by fragmented patient information.
Dermot Boyle, Programme Manager at the Health and Social Care (HSC) Business Services Organisation (BSO) recently spoke about enhancing the interaction of data exchange for the Northern Ireland Digital Identity Service to offer streamlined communication between patient/provider or provider and provider. This can shape smoother delivery of healthcare services for everyone.
“The goal of NIDIS is simple yet ambitious: to link together every citizen’s healthcare record in Northern Ireland, creating a single, comprehensive view of each patient”.
He also argued that the quality of system patient care and being able to use unified patient records to identify current health problems was dependent on data interoperability. It is about binding data to a patient but also allowing essential data to be passed between relevant stakeholders involved in a patient’s care. The Irish and UK healthcare systems have depositories of our data across GPs, pharmacies, the hospital and health and social care trusts, which need to be married together whilst maintaining responsible, secure transactions of data.
Central to this vision is the unique health identifier underpinning NIDIS, which Boyle says “facilitates seamless data sharing across primary, secondary, and community care settings”.
NIDIS is driven by an Oracle-based technology stack. “The master patient index (OHMPI) is the intelligence engine at the heart of the solution”.
“Oracle APEX will allow us to quickly pivot and build future applications quickly” to support the 24/7 call for the healthcare system.
“This is not just about moving data around; it is about doing so with accuracy, speed and above all security”. COVID-19 has shown how difficult it is in reality to implement a population health index and efficiently operate data exchange when services were suddenly tested like never before. He launched the NIDIS programme for data exchange during this time.
He also said the programme needed to be upscaled with more demographic data, including gender and age-related data, telecommunication details, and specific postcodes to identify displaced populations needing healthcare services.
