Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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3132. To ask the Minister for Health the timeline for the publication and implementation of the new Digital Health Strategy; the measures being taken to roll out shared electronic health records and expand digital diagnostics; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [43374/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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The new digital health strategy 'Digital for Care: A Digital Health Framework for Ireland 2024-2030', was published in May 2024 to reflect the rapidly changing landscape of health and social care in Ireland and provide a clear Vision and Mission for Digital Health in Ireland. The framework provides a clear strategy and roadmap for the digitisation of digital health records and information systems across the health service.

Digital for Care is framed around six principles that describe how we will deliver on this vision, to guide investment and provide clear direction in building up strong digital health infrastructure and capabilities. These six strategic principles are as follows: Patient as an Empowered Partner, Workforce and Workplace, Digitally Enabled and Connected Care, Data Driven Services, Digital Health Ecosystem and Innovation and Digitally Secure Foundations and Digital Enablers.

A link to the Digital for Care framework can be found here:

The strategic framework proposes a three step approach for the delivery of electronic health records, starting with the HSE Health App / patient app - to provide patients with access to trusted sources of health information and, over time, access to their own health data. This is followed by the National Shared Care Record and finally a national enterprise level electronic health record system, that will deployed regionally and span acute and community healthcare settings.

The Health App had a public release on the app stores in February with a further release in May. There will be regular releases on the app store into the future as the HSE add more features, capabilities and provide patients with access to more of their own data.

The technology needed to underpin the national shared care record has been procured and the team have started development and configuration work already this year.

The preliminary business case for the enterprise EHR has been developed by the HSE and has now been subjected to the external assurance process, as required under DPER Infrastructure Guidelines for large capital investment programmes.

Digital investment is reshaping healthcare delivery across the country with expanded digital diagnostics capabilities. By the end of the year, all public hospitals using NIMIS are connected on a single imaging platform to enable closer collaboration between clinicians, particularly those in more remote locations. It allows the secure, electronic sharing of images between specialists for faster and improved diagnosis and therefore improves patient experience and care for all. The HSE also delivered the first deployment of the national laboratory system (at Beaumont Hospital) in 2025.