The Future of Connected Health and Ireland’s Path to Global Leadership

By Noel Carroll, Citizen Development Lab and Lero, J.E. Cairnes School of Business & Economics, University of Galway, who look at the importance of Connected Health for Ireland. 

Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly recently published the ‘Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030’ which sets out an exciting roadmap to digitally transform health services in Ireland. Given the critical role of current and future technologies, digitalisation, and data in shaping Irish healthcare, this framework sets out to achieve a number of key objectives including:

• A vision for a modern, patient-centred, and sustainable health service that uses the latest digital technologies to deliver improved healthcare services and capacity.
• Providing guidance for decision-making and investment in digital health to keep Ireland at the forefront of connected health.
• Providing a roadmap for speeding up the transition to a fully integrated national digital health ecosystem.

The importance of Connected Health

This framework not only outlines a comprehensive plan for advancing Irish healthcare but also opens up new connected health opportunities for research and development in software solutions. By setting a vision for a modern, patient-centered, and sustainable health service, it encourages the adoption of cutting-edge digital technologies that improve healthcare services and expand capacity. This will also create a fertile ground for developing innovative software solutions tailored to enhance patient care, streamline operations, and optimise resource allocation. 

The framework also offers some guidance for decision-making and investment in digital health, ensuring that Ireland remains at the forefront of the digital health and may go further by nurturing internal start-up ecosystems within the healthcare system. The inclusion of Robotic Process Automation is very welcome since it can also introduce a new culture around Citizen Development. This may encourage our healthcare services to turn to frontline workers to upskill and address problems they face using digital solutions.

Citizen development is a new method of delivering low-code/no-code solutions. It hides the sophistication and complexity of coding but empowers subject matter experts to design, develop and deploy applications into production as though they were full-on, experienced coders. The trend toward the adoption of citizen development is being driven by growing investments in low-code/no-code platforms.

Low-code/no-code innovations can revolutionise how healthcare data is collected, analysed, and utilised, leading to more personalised and efficient service delivery. Additionally, the roadmap for accelerating the transition to a fully integrated national digital health ecosystem offers a structured pathway for implementing these new technologies. This integration should facilitate seamless data sharing and connectivity across various healthcare systems and stakeholders, enabling the development of interconnected software solutions, all of which makes for an excellent opportunity to implement citizen development.

Researchers and developers can leverage this interconnectedness to create platforms that enhance patient monitoring, telemedicine, predictive analytics, and ultimately contributing to a more efficient and responsive healthcare system. 

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) in citizen development has the potential to revolutionise our healthcare system, bringing about many opportunities to improve patient outcomes, streamline healthcare service operations, reduce costs, and instil a culture around innovative healthcare solutions. However, these advancements are not without their challenges and threats, necessitating a commitment to responsible citizen development and deployment.

Ireland, with its growing tech industry and strong regulatory reputation, stands poised to become a global leader in connected health. It can also allow us to shift from the traditional reactive care model to a much more proactive care model and building capabilities for earlier and more accurate diagnoses, improving patient outcomes significantly. This approach is particularly beneficial in the management of chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

For example, our medtech sector could expand into developing new data science capabilities using wearable devices to predict and prevent medical emergencies such as heart attacks by alerting patients and healthcare providers to abnormal patterns. This proactive approach shifts the focus from reactive to preventative care, enhancing patient quality of life and reducing healthcare costs. 

Since this Connected Health strategy also involves the collection and analysis of vast amounts of sensitive patient data, it is crucial that we can ensure the privacy and security of this data. Data breaches or misuse of health information can lead to severe consequences, including identity theft, loss of patient trust, and more awareness about bias and fairness are some key areas to focus on.

Therefore, robust encryption methods, secure data storage, stringent access controls, and ethics are all essential to mitigate these risks. By investing in research and development, education (including digital skills across healthcare programmes), and public-private collaboration, and by actively engaging and leading in connected health initiatives, Ireland can lead the way in harnessing the power of citizen development and AI to transform connected health for the public good.

 Noel Carroll is an Associate Professor in Business Information Systems in the School of Business & Economics, University of Galway and is a Funded Investigator at the Lero, the Science Foundation Ireland Research Centre for Software. He founded the Citizen Development Lab (citizendevelopmentlab.com) at the University of Galway which focuses on low-code/no-code for digitization, innovation, and digital transformation within organizations.

His principal research expertise straddles across three key domains of research: (i) information systems; (ii) health informatics; and (iii) software engineering and has published in high quality journals and conferences.

Noel enjoys industry engagement, and his interests include seeking ways to support organisations in developing transformation strategies in software development, digital innovation, and health informatics for multinationals, SMEs, and start-ups. He has published in leading international journals and conferences.

University of Galway profile: https://www.universityofgalway.ie/our-research/people/business-and-economics/noelcarroll/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/noelcarrolluog/ 

X / Twitter: https://x.com/NoelCarroll5 

Email: noel.carroll@universityofgalway.ie