Unique number will reduce medical errors
Every person in the country who uses health and social care services is to be given an ‘Individual Health Identifier' (IHI) - a number that is unique to them and that will last their lifetime.
According to the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA), the aim of the IHI is to accurately identify each person and to enable health and social care ‘to be delivered to the right patient, in the right place and at the right time'.
Ireland has been ranked eighth out of the 28 EU member states for its broadband connectivity in European Commission’s 2015 Digital Economy and Society Index.
The report finds that Ireland’s overall take-up of fast broadband has increased considerably over the last year, with subscriptions up from 35pc to 45pc. Use of internet services has also generally increased, with 68pc using video on demand, 63pc using social networking, 62pc using online shopping, 60pc using online banking and 56pc of internet users using eGovernment actively.
Read more: Ireland’s broadband progress noted in new EU report
The benefits of implementing the long-awaited individual health identifier — facilitating care delivery to the right patient, in the right place and at the right time — should far outweigh the cost of implementing this key enabler, writes Lloyd Mudiwa. The Irish health service is about to get a lot more efficient and safer, and at not too high a cost too, if the experience of the Epilepsy Patient Record (EPR) is anything to go by.
Thirty six rural broadband providers are preparing European legal action aimed at disrupting the government's state-subsidised €500m rural National Broadband Plan.
The rural operators, which have 75,000 customers between them and have formed an industry group called Wireless Broadband Ireland, say that the rural broadband plan would destroy up to 60 existing wireless broadband operators with the loss of hundreds of jobs. They also say that the plan will leave over 200,000 people facing broadband misery for five years as rural operators walk away from providing services to the country's worst-hit broadband blackspots.
Read more: IE: Wifi broadband companies to sue over €500m National Broadband scheme roll out
The Digital Repository of Ireland won the Promoting Ireland Overseas, Open Source and Overall Award last Thursday for the Inspiring Ireland project it spearheaded in collaboration with eight of Ireland’s national cultural institutions and the Department of Arts, Heritage, and the Gaeltacht.
Read more: IE: Digital Repository of Ireland wins at Ireland E-Government Awards