HealthTech Ireland is about joining the dots. Joining the dots between the medical technology and digital health companies, joining the dots between this industry and the public and private health services, and joining the dots between the health service we have now and the one we would like to have in the future.
But how that happens is probably best explained by showing how health technologies have been pivotal in helping the HSE cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
At least thirty Irish companies, some of them relatively small, have come through with tech that solves some of the problems posed by the management of Covid-19. They’ve done so against an urgent deadline, in many cases at reduced or no cost, and often while working remotely. They’ve frequently done it, helped by an unusual level of partnership with other companies and with the health service itself. The former is unusual, the latter even more so. Big public systems tend to bureaucracy, however, as soon as the pandemic arrived, it was as if HSE was sheared of several layers of needless bureaucracy. Instead, they were open to collaboratively exploring possibilities, whether those possibilities related to the protection of patients or of front-line healthcare staff. Joining the dots sometimes involves removing the obstacles between them.
As an example of this collaboration, Sony, working with clinicians and researchers from the Assert Centre in UCC, academics and other partners developed and deployed “a powerful quarantine management platform,” to help keep workers safe and isolated where necessary.
Another case is Critical Healthcare, an Irish SME working with Roche Diagnostics to introduce rapid Covid-19 testing in Ireland to help keep businesses open and staff safe.
All of the emerging solutions have come through at an astonishing pace, and in some cases – such as Swiftqueue - novel tech was rapidly implemented to support the scheduling and movement of Covid-19 test centres and deployed nationally almost overnight.
It is clear that we may be dealing with Covid-19 for years rather than months, even if a viable vaccine is produced in record time. It is a persistent, evolving virus that is difficult to eradicate in today’s connected world.
Therefore, the next dots that we need to connect will be to the future and will allow our health service to tackle the backlogs that have inevitably emerged, which local outbreaks may exacerbate. Smarter scheduling and appointment management, better options for remote treatment such as telehealth, faster and more accurate diagnosis using the latest imaging technology are all elements that are currently being deployed or developed by the Health Tech sector.
HealthTech Ireland is an association of over 140 companies delivering health services to Ireland, in the areas of digital, diagnostics and devices. The companies range from indigenous SMEs to multi-national global organisations. Leveraging the skills and experience of these companies together with enabling true partnership with the State are essential components to joining the dots.
HealthTech Ireland’s recent white paper explains how we as a State can save money on needless liability settlements by replacing equipment sooner and in a more predictable manner without spending more money than has already been committed.
Ireland’s leading health IT companies have come together under the umbrella of HealthTech Ireland to form an industry leadership forum. It’s principal objective is to be available to advise government on digitizing the health system and to assist in the implementation of Sláintecare. The forum is chaired by Intel’s Colin MacHale and includes companies like Amazon’s Cloud Services business AWS, Vodafone, Medtronic, Change Healthcare, Irish Life Health and SISK Healthcare to name but a few.
The health system can benefit from the presence of nine of the top 10 global health tech companies based here to resource and learn from their global expertise.
Ray Cahill, chairman, HealthTech Ireland