Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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354. To ask the Minister for Health to provide an update on the new laboratory IT system (details supplied) ; the length of time this system has been in development, the timeline for rollout, the cost of this project to date, and the expected total cost; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [56012/25]

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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MedLIS is a national programme that underpins Ireland’s broader investment in digitising the health system and is a national laboratory system intended to serve the needs of all laboratory sites well into the future. Our legacy of different laboratory information systems deployed across different sites is not conducive towards delivering consistent digital health records for all patients, regardless of where they are treated or where they have their lab tests conducted.

MedLIS aims to modernize laboratory services, ensuring high-quality, efficient, and patient-centered care across Ireland.

Contracts with the HSE and the successful vendor for a new laboratory IT system were signed in 2015. A subsequent report commissioned by the project board to assess progress up to 2018, highlighted several findings and suggested a series of recommendations on how to improve delivery of the programme. Based on these findings, the HSE made a number of significant changes which, notwithstanding significant delays caused by the pandemic and subsequent, criminally motivated cyberattack on the health service, culminated in MedLIS successfully going live at Beaumont hospital in August 2024.

The system deployed at Beaumont is one of the most widely used laboratory systems in the world (1500+ plus sites). Because it operates differently from the system it replaces, it requires changes in how people do their work. Because MedLIS is a national programme, it also requires alignment with processes across all sites. The team are actively engaged locally, working through system optimisation to streamline labour intensive tasks and improve how the system works to benefit all staff on all sites.

Now that MedLIS is deployed in Beaumont the focus is to accelerate deployment across all regions, starting with Dublin North East. The best way to secure value from the investment to date is to deploy the system widely and spread the cost across all sites. MedLIS will be deployed across 43 laboratory sites when the programme is complete.

As part of the deployment in Beaumont, the requirement to address digital pathology was identified, as the opportunities offered by the latest technological solutions available for pathology are extensive. Accordingly, the HSE is now progressing the procurement of a Digital Pathology solution. Digital Pathology focuses on managing and analysing information generated from digitised specimen slides. It is planned to be integrated with MedLIS, which will further future proof the overall investment in Digital for Care.

The department are referring this PQ to the HSE for further information.